Brittle Bitterness
by Wrath Reign
Summary: "Hey, did you see the news this morning, Che?" It's been three years since Chell escaped the hell that is Aperture Science. One morning, her coworker Ashton showed her a video of a mob of androids carrying her old acquaintance Wheatley back to Aperture. Reluctantly, she feels obligated to go back. Ashton and Chell head back to Aperture to, hopefully, escape with the blue moron.
1. 1 - Progressive Change

"Hey, did you see the news this morning, Che?" My co-worker struggled every morning to make small talk with me; ever since I started working at the local cafe it had been tradition. He was younger than me, a senior in high school according to what he said. The lanky boy casted his backpack into his locker before closing it with a resounding 'thud'.

"I don't watch the news…" I sighed as I decided to throw him a bone, "What was it?"

His eyes seemed to focus and clear up a bit when I gave him something to respond to. He pulled out his phone and quickly maneuvered around on it, then he handed it to me, "Look at that! What do you think all of that could be?"

On the phone was a picture news article. The headline seemed to stray close to a conspiracy theory. In big bold letters it read, "Are Androids Among Us?"

" _Earlier this week, police attempted to detain the previously reported on mob of people as they returned on their same path. All members of the mob ignored all demands of the police, resulting in fire to prevent their progression. However, several police officers were injured after their shots ricocheted off of the men and women in the mob. Police officers were able to shoot down only a small fraction of what witnesses state had to have been above a hundred people. The police refuse to make any statements on the matter, but witnesses testify that the people they were able to take in seemed to be dead, or 'powered-down', a few joked."_

The news article was the kind of odd that strummed strings of distasteful nostalgia within me. I frowned at the continuing paragraph, " _Photographs and videos of the mob, prior to the police requesting devices be turned off and for people to evacuate from the scene, show the mob circling around a specific person in the center, often checking to look at them when gunshots were fired. A single person has released a video from a second story building in which we can see said person was holding what looked to be a metal ball with handles._

In a hurry, I skimmed the concluding paragraph. I took a deep breath and hit play on the photo. The camera was shaky, and I assumed someone had taken it the clip on their phone. It focused in on the collective crowd, before zooming in on the center of it. There was indeed someone holding a metal ball, and I noticed a bright blue glow on the shirts of those to the sides of the one holding it.

 _Oh my god_.

My coffee cup hit the table and tipped over, spilling the hot liquid everywhere in a good foot or so range. I toppled over, and Ashton's phone clattered onto the tile by my head at the same time the metal chair clanged behind me. Drops of coffee burned at my arm as I tried to sit up.

"Miss C! Are you okay?" Through blurry eyes, I saw Ashton crouch down next to me. I took a harsh breath when I saw a claw smash down on the top of the lift.

Adrenaline turned my face cold as I tried to sit up, "Stop- I'll fall!"  
"C-Che? You already fell… Are you okay? I-I'll call an ambulance!"

I bolted upright with a similar feeling to breaking through the surface of water after staying under for a little too long. Ashton's hand stopped midway towards me, watching me carefully,, "No- I'm fine! S-Sorry…"

I stammered a little as I tried to get to my feet. I fell back with little resistance when I realized I didn't have the strength to haul myself up. I reached out for Ashton's hand, "Can you help me up?"

As he lifted me to my feet, I heard the creak of the old kitchen door. Our manager, Matt, grinned one of her glowing smiles at us, "I knew Ashton would knock you off your feet-"

"She fell. I think she's sick," Matt's teasing grin faded and the dainty girl ran over. She looked me up and down.

"Chelley, you're so pale! Take her home please. I'll keep you on the clock, okay, Ashton? Consider it a delivery."

"No- I'm fine- Seriously, Matt-"

"Chelley, I won't hear it. You haven't called off a single day since you started here. Go ahead, me and Blakely can hold up the store until Ashton gets back. He can easily get back before the breakfast rush fills in."

"But I-" She walked back towards the kitchen with her pink curls in full bounce as she went. I heard Ashton pick up his phone and fish his keys out of his pocket.

* * *

The ride was full of silence. He would occasionally ask if it was too hot or cold, or if I needed to stop somewhere on the way home. That, or he'd ask me to repeat or confirm directions. I kept my answers as short and quiet as possible. I, again, wished I had the money to buy a car. I had been on the surface three years now, it was about time I stopped traveling by foot.

"Is this the place, Che?" We pulled up into the lot for my apartment complex. Once he parked, I pulled myself out of his truck, careful not to kick his jacket or mess of bottles on the floor out in the process.

"Hey, Che," I turned and gave him a smile as he handed me a slip of paper, "there's my number. If you need a ride or- if you need anything, feel free to call me. Alright?"

I nodded idly and rattled mine off to him as I put the number in my pocket, and I pulled my key out in the same gesture. He grinned and nodded, and waved to me, "I hope you get to feeling better, Miss Che- Miss C."

I laughed at his slip up. He did that a lot. I wasn't sure why 'Che' and "Miss C' were okay, but "Miss Che" wasn't. Maybe it's because he almost called me Miss Chell and didn't want to make me feel old. I mean, twenty-three wasn't that old in my book. I didn't know that that had exactly been my age, but it felt right. I always had vaguely knew where I was in age, but I had no clue when my birthday was. So, I deemed it the day I escaped for simplicity. That made less dates to remember.

 _Wheatley is back on Earth. GLaDOS has him. GLaDOS hates him. He is going to die, and no one but me knows it. No one else knows what that image meant, and no one else knew that a sentient robot that was programmed with pain sensors had just went into his own living hell. And did I care?_

 _Pass. Next thought._

He wasn't a good person. He had not only subjected me to testing, and betrayed me in the very last moments before what should've been freedom, but he also tried to kill me. Relentlessly. In fact, if I hadn't been so good with my long fall boots and portal gun, I would've died. He went over kill too- Bombs, neurotoxin, trapped in a room surrounded by fire, and no portal surfaces. If that pipe hadn't busted, I would've been deader than the roadkill we passed on the way home.

For a moment, the bombs landed in front of me by a foot or two, The explosion stung my face. I squinted my eyes and shot a blue portal, letting a couple soar in. Wheatley's shields had shifted to protect him from the last attack, but he still lift a chink in his armor. His robotic body went limp again, and I caught a glimpse of the green core on its way down the management rail.

Breath. One. Two… Three...

My hands dropped into my lap as the weight of the portal gun faded away. I sighed and flopped over to stare up at the ceiling. Those were getting more frequent. But yes, Wheatley was cruel. But, does cruelness back help anything? And he had woken me up, otherwise I would be a 'flippin' vegetable'. And part of me really wanted to believe that such power to a tiny robot had just overloaded his mind-

 _Shut up, shut up. There's no reason to contemplate that. It's over. It's not going to come back. He will never be in control of the facility again, and you will never be down there again._

Right?

I grabbed my phone and turned it on. I usually didn't bother with it. I had saved up for it and bought it, but that was mostly for calls from work since my apartment didn't have a home phone and the apartment complex didn't allow us to have one installed for some reason or another. They had holes drilled in for tvs already, and I guess they didn't want anymore.

Cheapskates are cheapskates, after all. Good ol' human nature.

I pulled up the picture Ashton showed me. I felt nauseous looking at the image of him soaring right towards her. I didn't understand how he got back, or how she knew. I hadn't a single clue as to why she cared enough to take him right to her. And I mean, what are the odds he landed where Aperture Science laid underground? It made my head hurt to think about it. I curled my torso forward as a wave of nausea crashed into me, and dropped my phone next to me.

Maybe someone would discover Aperture now. Maybe now that they want to go recover that object. Certainly the government has questions about that huge claw? I knew for a fact the people did, because a ton of people in the comments were demanding answers. If only they knew.

My chest got overwhelmingly tight as I stood up. I really didn't want to worry about it, but I couldn't just pretend the matter didn't exist. I had to decide whether not to write Wheatley off, or to see if I could do something. To me, neither sounded to appealing. He was the first kind voice I ever heard. He was the only person who ever helped me before potato-GLaDOS. And I still felt within me that maybe he really had just been overwhelmed to the point of corruption-

 _"Oh really? That's what you two think is it? Well maybe it's time I did something then."_

I gasped and spun around, but no one was there. I was alone. They couldn't touch me here. I was completely out of their control. Aperture Science was nothing to me, and it never would be again.

Except maybe now-

No, Chell, no. You're not going back down there. It's extremely unfortunate that Wheatley has to stay down there and go through whatever GLaDOS has in store for him, but you can't help him. Overloaded or not, he dug himself into this hole. "Overloaded" didn't dismiss him from what he did anyways. And GLaDOS was only returning him the favor of what he did to Her and myself. There's no reason to save him. She'll get bored and kill him eventually.

No, no, that thought still hurt. I meant it when I said that Wheatley being overloaded didn't make it okay, he still was guilty, but being tortured? Dying? I wasn't sure he earned it. Sure, he tried to kill me, but he didn't. A lot of attempted murders didn't go to jail for life and especially not death row, so why would he-

Fine, fine. I stood up, but my knees felt didn't feel like they would support me long. I slowly made my way to my room, but I fell over rather quickly.

I reached for my portal gun,heaving out quick breaths, and rolled onto my back. I aimed at the bright moon above me-

And the ceiling stared back at my empty hands. My hands fell onto the floor for a minute as I caught my breath. Once I made it to my closet, I hoisted some things out. My boots and jumpsuit had been cleaned up so that they weren't quite as ratty as they had been. The rips and tears from wearing the jumpsuit _**into space**_ had been well patched over by a local tailor.

I couldn't believe I had any consideration for doing this.

I pulled it on over my clothes. It still fit fairly well, and the zipper worked just fine now that it was replaced. I sat on the edge of my bed and pulled on my long fall boots, and a pair of knee socks since the ones I had back then were so worn out that they ripped in the wash. The boots still fit as well as they did the day I got out of that shed. They fit was almost eerie, like they'd been molded just for me. And I guess, as any shoe acted, they had formed to my feet over time.

A loud rumbling came from the right before my old, charred companion cube tumbled out in front of me-

No, there was no shed there. However, my companion cube sat where I was looked in my closet. Funny how subconsciouses work. I wouldn't need it, that was for sure. I certainly wasn't lugging that heavy thing any farther. It's funny how much lighter picking things up with the portal gun was. Carrying it across a wheat field with my bare hands had been much harder, and I had the calluses on my hands to show it.

I pulled off my boots and jumps suit and changed from my work clothes to a t-shirt and sweatpants before I plopped down on my bed. I was crazy. I was absolutely crazy if I thought I was gof back there. It wasn't happening. Even if I could make it without losing my mind- which from how things were going already wasn't a very likely outcome- there was no way to get in without GLaDOS knowing. And the very, _**very**_ last thing GLaDOS said to me was "Don't come back." and I didn't want to disobey here on that one. She had always had a bad hatred for being disobeyed, and an even worse temper to match.

I mean, she definitely wouldn't let me in. And even if I did, she would say that meant I wanted to test. I didn't. I had no desire to see white panels and blue and orange portals ever again. I had no desire to see the cubes or the lasers. I didn't want to see light bridges or those excursion funnels. No ariel faith plates for me. How could I ever put myself in a situation where I would have to see those again?

I almost screamed when I an odd chiming went off. Realizing it was my phone, I brought myself to my feet. At least my knees felt a little more stable.. As I walked, I kept steady breaths. I picked up my phone quickly, "Yes, hello?"

"Miss C! How are you feeling?"

"Ashton?"

"I'm on break- Hey, which apartment do you live in?"

"Huh?"

He laughed with a light-hearted air, and I heard the sound of a paper bag shifting, "Weird question, huh? Told her. Matty is sending me out to bring you lunch. Which apartment is yours?"

"Oh… 317."

"Awesome! Be right up!" I bolted to my room and made a mad dash to shove all the Aperture objects back into the closet. Then I dashed back to the living room, and tossed myself down onto the couch. My heart pounded on the inside of my chest like a caged animal as I laid there, which made it hard to listen for a knock on the door. Finally, it came, and I made my way over.

He held up two brown paper bags labeled with our store's name and grinned at me, "Hungry, Che?"

I gave him a smile to convey my thanks and nodded before motioning for him to come in, "Woah, nice place, Che!"

I laughed softly, "Something like that. How much longer do you have before you have to go back to the store?"

"Oh, right! Matty told me to text her when I got here so that she knew when to start the clock. I've got thirty-five minutes."  
"Don't let her hear you calling her that, you might lose more than your job," I commented as I grabbed a sandwich from the bag and unwrapped it. I stared at it a long moment. Cheese turkey, cut apple slices, and bacon, along with mustard and avocados on a sandwich. The thought of what it would taste like made my stomach churn. I wearily knitted my eyebrows together as I stared over at Ashton.

"Oh, that one's mine," He reached for it and handed me the other one, "That one's a little more 'normal'. A ton less tasty though!"

"You are really strange, you know that?"

"Strange is good in my book- Oh, by the way, Ms. C, do you mind if I stay for lunch?" He chomped down on his sandwich, provoking a laugh from me.

"You are already aren't you?"

His face turned a rosy pink as he made a point of looking at everything but me, "Sorry. I guess I just sort invited myself, huh?"

"That's alright. You have limited time to get back, I'm pretty sure Matty intended for you stay for lunch anyways. It's fine by me. After all, you brought me lunch. Might as well let you stay."

An awkward silence hung stiff in the air until he decided to try and make conversation, "What's on your mind, Che? You seem really down about something."

My eyes flickered up at him, then darted back down at my sandwich, "What do you mean?"

"You can't fool me, Ms. Ch- C. C'mon, we're co-workers. If we can't tell each other how we feel, then how are we ever supposed to be able to function working together? We'll make some nasty sandwiches that way."

"Like yours?" Although he chuckled at my joke, his eyes stayed set on me.

I sighed and sat down my sandwich to take a swig of the milkshake he brought me. I looked over at him as I contemplated how to make Wheatley being trapped in Aperture with GLaDOS sound vague enough to sound normal. The silence left an empty feeling that I knew was making things even more awkward, so I decided I had to start talking, "This friend of mine… we met in a… difficult situation. I was trapped there, and he tried to… help me get out of it. But instead, he got sucked into it. Uh- and, long story short, we both got out and went our separate ways. Now he's trapped back there though, and well… We didn't part on good terms."

"Ah, so that's what's weighing Che down. Makes sense. So you don't know if you can help him or how, right? Or- Or do you not want to?"

"N-No I want to… I think I do. I mean, sure he wronged me but… it makes me no better if I leave him there, right? And besides… I'm the only one who knows he's trapped there."

"It's true that two wrongs don't make a right, but what if you both just end up trapped there?"

I sighed, "That's what I'm worried about."

Ashton shifted his weight around in his seat, then looked at me, "How far is to even get to where he is?"

I sighed while I racked my brain to remember. I sighed and rested my forehead on the table, "Like… Seven hours? It's about 500 miles…"

He gave me a quick nod before he began typing what I could only assume was an essay on my personal insanity. With my sandwich gone, I stared at him until he looked up and gave me a grin, "Lets go."  
"What?"

"I told Matt that I'm taking you to the hospital. I'm off for the next three days, so hopefully we can get back by then."

"What? No, no, no. You can't go there- Ashton. Nothing good can come out of you going there. You'll just get trapped or-"

"But you know better. And once we get him, it'll be three against one, right?

A _**giant**_ one. But I couldn't turn that into human terms. His grin bore into me, "Lets get read then, Ms. C."

I sighed as I realized there was no good way out of this. I went to my room and pulled on the jumpsuit. I knew he'd question it, but I couldn't worry about it. I pulled the boots on, and grabbed a couple of old backpacks of mine from when I used to grocery shop and walk home instead of riding the bus. I stuffed an entire pack of batteries in one, and grabbed a couple of huge flashlights. Two pocket knifes- It took me a long time to pack.

When we finally left the apartment, we both climbed into his truck. He asked the location, and I told him the closest place I knew and informed him that we'd have to walk a while from there. He nodded and mounted his phone on a piece of plastic on the windshield. I felt myself jolt back in some sort of a recoil as I stared at the spidering cracks on his screen, "D-Did I break your phone earlier?"

He laughed, "Don't worry about it, Che. It doesn't matter, I had a warranty on it. The new one will e here in a few days."

I hated being cars, they were too cramped. There was no good way out if your door got blocked. But, they were necessary. I certainly wasn't going to walk all the way back there again. Ashton would glance over at me occasionally, and when I finally caught him he chuckled and looked back at the road, "Don't consider me rude if you can avoid it, but what's with the jumpsuit?"

"Ah- Um… Long story-"

"Enough said," He shrugged and kept his eyes on the road, weaving between slow cars to get in front of them.

* * *

Roughly halfway there, he stopped us on the side of the road. He stepped out of the car and looked over it. I got out and stared at him, shifting my weight between my feet. He looked up at me and frowned, "The back right tire is flat."

 _"Well I'm back. The Aerial Faith Plate in here is sending a distress signal. You broke it didn't you_." One of many remarks she had made at my weight. I put my hands on my stomach, then realized I was standing on the side of the road and not on white panels.

He almost laughed, "Hungry? Okay, there should be a gas station down the road from here. We can go down there and buy what we need to patch it, then we can drive it down to fill the air back in if we take it slow. We can grab food there. Sound good?"

I nodded. The sun was going down, so at least it wasn't as hot as it had been before. We started our way down on foot, and I grabbed my backpack just in case. Maybe I was paranoid, but it'd probably be dark before we got back and that flashlight sounded really nice. He would point out animals in the brush or a flock of birds in the sky. The first time he did I laughed, "Did you know that crows love potatoes?"

"Do they? Then that's why they're on my trash can so much."

* * *

It took a while to get to the station, but he found the kit he was long for. On our way back, I found myself thankful i brought the flashlight. He had to roll his car forward to get to the hole on the tire, and rather than getting in, starting it, moving it, and turning it off, he instead heaved at it at budged it just enough. I held the flashlight in place for him while he attempted to patch it.

"What caused the hole?"

"A nail," He mumbled right as he pulled the assailant out out of the tire. He pocketed it - probably to avoid another car from falling into our shoes - and quickly patched it over, "It smells like crap over here…"

"Maybe because there's a bunch of cows at the fence over there?"

He glanced to his left, then went back to work, "... So there is."

We tried to drive the truck down, but long story short the patch wouldn't stay on these old, rough roads. I watched Ashton get more and more agitated as we had to move slower and slower. He suddenly huffed and yanked the keys out, then went back to the tire and started to push. I could tell it was straining him, and the truck hardly moved at all.

I quickly got out and pushed alongside him. At least it moved us about twice as fast, which meant we'd probably be there by morning. I sighed as I imagined trying to around the curb in this fashion. I stopped pushing when Ashton did, and he worked to get the patch back in place, "I just don't think it has enough air… It's staying on pretty well."

"Oh, really? I don't suppose that changes anything for us, does it?"

"No, not really." I sighed and started to push the nine-thousand pound hunk of metal. He got up and pushed alongside me. He screamed at one point and leapt in, shoved the keys back in and did his very best to make the car move a little. I saw headlights flow across the ground, and I realized the truck was partly in the other lane. As he tried his best to correct it, I pushed to try and help it move faster.

I realized we'd moved it just in the nick of time when the wind caused by the other car blew my ponytail around a bit. After we got the car to the ground right next to the road, we both sat and continued to pant from both the panic and physical exertion. I fell to my knees - don't do that on streets, it hurts - and rested my forehead on the dirty back of the truck. He came over and sat next to me. He wrapped his arms around his knees, "I don't know how we're going to do this."

His typical optimism was lacking. Guilt held my chest tight as I realized that nail would've been ages away from him if he hadn't of taken me towards Aperture.

"I might have the money for a tow truck," I offered, but he shook his head.

"This is my car, but the owner forgot to sign over the ownership. I'm meeting him in a couple of days- Well, if we get back in time. If not, it'll be fine. I just have to make sure I don't get in any trouble. But anyways, the car owner has to be present for a tow-truck to tow you."

I groaned and craned my head back. I stared up at the moon and felt my already racing heartbeat manage to pick up the pace.

 _This is my only shot. If I don't do this… the whole facility is going to explode. And me, Wheatley, GLaDOS, the turrets, the other cores, we're all going to die here and now if I don't make this shot. Along with all the science and technology people slaved over for years._

"Chell?" I jumped a little as I came back to reality. I realized I was in a super dramatic pose. I was leaning back a little as I stared up at the moon like a lost puppy. I must've worried him enough for him to cut the nicknames for once, "Are you okay?"

"Just worried- but it'll be okay." I put my hands in my lap and looked at the truck, "We'll get it there. It might just take longer than expected. S-Sorry about your tire. I'll pay to get you a new set when we get back-"  
"That's alright, I've got a spare back at the house. Too bad I didn't- I hate myself," He breezed onto his feet and threw open the tool chest in the back of the truck. He hit his forehead hard, "I'm the biggest idiot. Ever."

"You have the spare tire."

"Absolutely," He grabbed his tools and took the pieces off, then raised the car with the jack and removed the tire. Pretty soon, we were back on track. He tossed everything back in the car and the flat in the bed of the truck. He pulled himself into the bed and climbed down next to the passenger seat, I guess to save time. Or maybe he was just that boosted in energy from the random success.

He grinned at me as soon as I got back in, "Lets get you some food!"

* * *

We washed the dirt and grime off in the bathrooms and grabbed food that probably was going to cause us heart problems one day. Hot dogs, chips, and sodas. I grabbed a couple apples as well to feel a little better about it. He snagged a couple other things, and we were off.

As we chowed down, he grinned apologetically at me, "Sorry I wasted so much time when I had another tire. And wasted so much energy on moving it."

"You forgot it was back there, it's fine. We're moving now and that's all that matters. Besides, you didn't have to drive me out here in the first place. So I'm in no position to complain." He shrugged his shoulders at me.

* * *

"That is a huge field." He stared out at the field I had trekked through so long ago. We had our backpacks on and the car locked up. It seemed like it was an okay place to park. As long as a farmer didn't get angry at us for parking right outside his fence, we'd be fine. Ashton didn't seem to worried about it.

"It is. Imagine how much bigger it felt when there was wheat up to your chest. It's only ankle-tall right now, thank god."

"Yeah but that means it's easier for us to be seen, easier to get in trouble. So we'd better move quick."  
"Just be careful not to kill all the wheat. And don't waste too much energy speeding, it's a pretty long journey . Not to mention we still have to deal with what happens when we get there."

"Right."

We were about ten minutes into the walk when he finally sighed, "So I guess it's time to ask you what exactly I'm walking into. Violent? Manipulative? Male? Female? How big are they? What is there go-to thing to stop you?"

I paused to think of how to word it, "I'd give an 7/10 in violence and a 10/10 in manipulation. Uh,. female. They are… _**huge**_. But not fat huge. Like… uh… wrestler huge. Their go-to is… well- It's hard to explain."

"Fine by me. I like surprises," I could tell he was being partially sarcastic, but he let it drop, so I didn't really find the energy to scold him for it.

"I want you to keep that in mind," In my head, I saw GLaDOS hulking before me. She was absolutely terrifying in her normal state; she towered over any living being by far. She herself would easily crush a school bus if she were to fall from the ceiling. Hell, she probably would if she wasn't likely to lose control of the facility. She would say that it was a test to see how quickly school children react to danger or something.

Okay, that's enough morbid thoughts. Plenty of morbid things in reality.

"How much farther is it anyways?"

"Well, lets just say we've hardly started."

"I really am not missing my exercise while we're out of town."

"No, no. You'll get more exercise tonight than you have in the past three months combined."

"Talk about pushing yourself, huh?"

"Something like that." I glanced around the field, but there was nothing see anywhere else that I couldn't see in front of me. Wheat. I wondered if this was many farmers' fields, or if someone had enough money to own this much land. Maybe it was a mass-producer's field. Honestly, I just hoped we were going in the right direction.

Finally, I saw the shed. The place where I got my first glimpse of the outside. It almost felt nostalgic, but it wasn't a warm welcome. It meant that we were currently standing over Aperture Science, and we were about the descend into my personal hell. Also, it was quite a bit off to our right and had Ashton not pointed it out, I would've never seen it and we probably still would've been going the wrong way.

"Oh, Che! Is that…?"

"That shed will lead us to Her place underground."

"Christ, she lives underground? Middle of nowhere, underground, she's not a very social creature is she?"

"Nothing like a social creature." An antisocial machine.

It took a little while to make it to the shed, but we did. I could feel myself start shaking as we neared it, and at one point the wheat tripped me up and I got a faceful of it.

When I looked up, light glared off of the glass box around me. One portal opened on the panel behind me, and one in the surrounding room. The announcer on the intercom told me to leave through it. As I hoisted myself up, the room was abruptly missing. The sounds of crickets' chirping replaced the relentless hum.

"You alright, Miss C?"

"Yeah… I'm fine. Tripped on the wheat or something."

"We walked to the shed. I tugged on the metal door, but it was sturdily locked in place. I absent-mindedly bit down on my lip while, Ashton tugged on it, but there was no chance in it's position. He grumbled, "Too bad I didn't stop by the house and grab my crowbar. I broke the one that I kept in my truck."

He opened his backpack and pulled out a wrench as long as his forearm. About the time he got his backpack on, I felt a stinging pain in my bottom lip. I felt my fingertip along it, and noticed I was bleeding from the teeth marks I wore in. I figured he was going to try and dismantle the door, but instead he swung it back like a baseball back and swiftly brought it forward. The metal shack thundered like a horrendous storm. Birds flew up from the field and filled the sky. I think they were all crows.

However, I now figured out his plan. He had landed the hit at the lock. He was going to try and beat it out of place. Which was better than my ever-present lack of plan. He continued to beat on it like it had wronged him, and I kept watch for any angry farmers. I hadn't seen a farm or house for miles, but it would be just my luck that someone would be nearby to rip us a new one for being in their field uninvited. I wonder if they know this shack is even here. Aperture probably owns it, and just require someone keeps it here.

"Ha! I'm the bomb!" He pumped the fist that held the wrench into the air as the door creaked open. Inside was dark, so I lifted my flashlight and clicked it on. The moonlight had been plenty to maneuver through the wheatfield, but it wouldn't touch us now. He put the shed door back best he could, but it was super busted, "Huh. This is breaking and entering, isn't it?"

"Something like that. Don't worry, she won't report you. Just trust me, " It was about then I realized that I had no plan from here on out. I didn't know how to make the lift go down, I didn't know how to get to Wheatley, and if I remembered right, this lift lead right in front of Her face, "Shit."

He glanced at me and seemed to realize my predicament I walked into the lift and stared at the floor, "Yeah… I don't think my wrench is going to make this thing budge. Not to mention you would just go soaring down to the floor below and probably crash open into a few dozen bits."

I shivered. He didn't want to know what was at the bottom of this pit, or how far down below it was.

"So uh… I'm noticing there are no buttons."

"Yeah, She controls it."

"Oh… huh. I don't suppose there's another entrance?"

"Maybe. None that I know of. Probably not another one nearby."

He laughed at my side note, "Where else would it be? Her house is here, isn't it?"

"Y-" The lift started to go down. My skin felt cold. She knew. I swiped the wrench from his hand and smashed the side of the lift, "Come on!"

"Woah, woah, woah! This thing is moving way too fast- Oh my god your serious we're- What the hell!"  
Through openings in the wall, you could see the occasional turret or potato plant. But more importantly, he had started to get the idea of how big this place was. And - no pun intended - he was just scratching the surface. I grabbed his hand, "When I say jump, you jump. Understand?"

"Uh, yeah, sure. Whatever you say, boss."

"Jump!"

My arm got cut by the jagged edge of the glass that remained in the elevator, but we both made it out. I did my best to get us into one of the sections of the wall, but I had mistimed the jump. We had to fall a few feet first, and at the first opportunity I had I swung Ashton into one of the cubbies. I fell past it, but he managed to get his barrings enough to hold onto me. He pulled me up, then we both stood there. We were panting like overheated dogs.

It stunk so badly in here that Ashton at one point leaned over the edge and hurled those unhealthy foods from before into the abyss. As someone who had become adapted to it, it still made me want to follow suit, so I could only imagine how bad it was on his system. Finally he caught his breath enough to turn and face me. He was at least regaining some color to his face.

"What… The… H-"

"You don't want to be there when that lift reaches the bottom. It moving on it's own means She knew someone was up there. I don't know if She knew it was me, but she knows it was someone. And the broken glass may tell her someone escaped into the facility."

"F-Facility?"

"Ashton, I… I think I need to explain things now. Things that I've been too nervous to tell you. If I told you before- You wouldn't have brought me here. You wouldn't have come here yourself. If I told you… I wouldn't have been able to come help him."

His eyes got a little narrow as he looked me up and down. The happy-go-lucky attitude of his faded with crossed arms and a hard frown, "What have you been hiding from me."

I took as deep a breath as I could, and motioned to the space around us, "This is Aperture Science. They're a very old science company that went out of business ages ago. They did a lot to stay in business- The employees even became test subjects. Their creations… broke the boundaries of science. There are gels that make you bounce way up into the air and these beams that make let you float… There's… hard-light bridges made from sunlight that you can _**walk on**_ … And the beast of all creations is their portal gun.:

"Their portal gun?"

"You can create two portals with it. A blue, and an orange. The colors of the company logos and all. If you go through one, you come out the other. So if one is up high in a place you can't get to, and one is right in front of you-"

"It gets you up to where you couldn't reach before."

"Exactly. That's the basics of it. Anyway, the only thing that might be more impressive is the robots here. There's one- Her. Her name is GLaDOS. She controls the entire facility. If you see paneled walls and floors, she can move and change every one of them. If you see a button, she can activate it. If you see a cube, she can destroy it. She is… unbelievable powerful, and your best bet is to just avoid her as much as possible. Then there are the turrets. They are programmed to shoot you down. They have extremely accurate aim. They're those robots you saw as we were coming down."

"Oh- That's what those things were? Bullet-shooting robots? How come they didn't shoot us then?"

"Well, they're probably not activated right now. No one is supposed to be up here, and you and I are the only two humans in the facility, so they-"

"What? What do you mean- Your friend is here!"

I looked down at my feet and bit the sore place on my lip, "He's a-"

"No! No, Chell. We didn't come here for an inanimate object- Tell me-"

"He's not inanimate!" I felt my face turn red, so I started to look down out of the cubbyhole we were in, "He's... The robots here are all sentient. They have memories, and emotions, and… and they can feel _**pain**_. The scientists were _**sickeningly**_ good at what they did. They… They-"

"They can't feel, Chell! There _isn't_ a way. They can be programmed all damn day to sound and act like it but-"

"They were all human!" My voice echoed around us into the silence, and I sat down carefully to avoid falling out into the void below. I left my back to him so I didn't have to see his disbelief, "They… They were all human. Cave Johnson, the founder… He had them all built and ported humans' consciousnesses into them. I don't know about the turrets… But I know GLaDOS was a woman named Caroline. Cave's own assistant-"

"Well then why isn't he still here? Why isn't he-"

"He died just before the technology was done! He had already put the orders in."

"So you're trying to tell me-"

"I am! I am trying to tell you the robots here were previously human, and still are on the inside. I am telling you that I dragged you all the way out here to save one of them. And I am telling you that GLaDOS will want us dead the moment she sees us. But you don't just _leave_ someone in a hell like this. GlaDOS has a programmed obsession with testing, scientifically. She makes these test chambers that you do with the portal guns- You have to do them nonstop here. It's… And the poor robots… They have to do things against their will. And- And I can't just _leave_ someone here. I know it's hell. I know what it does to you."

Ashton was quiet for a long moment. He came to sit next to me. He stared down below us. I guess not being able to see the bottom of the pit was a little unsettling, because he turned a sickly pale color. He finally looked over at me and took a deep breath, "Okay. I mean, it's not like I know how to get out of here without dying. So, lets go."

I sat up a little straighter, "You'll help me?"

He grinned at me, "Duh. Lead the way, Che."

I got to my feet and looked around. If only I had a portal gun. I had nothing to navigate out of the hole with. I could see a catwalk down below, and I'd be fine to land on it. No way it was too far if I had survived that all down into old Aperture. But Ashton would break like a porcelain plate. I looked over at him and shot him an apologetic look before I lifted him onto my shoulder and jumped.

"Holy shit what are you doing! Chell!"

We landed, and thankfully my boots took most of the impact. I think my shoulder in his chest winded him, but he otherwise seemed okay. After I sat him down, I started off down the catwalk. I figured he would get the picture himself, but instead he was still bewildered by my seemingly careless jump

"What- Was-"

"These boots. They're called Long Fall Boots. They keep me from getting hurt as long as I land on my feet. Portal testing tends to make you fall from very high places."

"Remind me not to sign up."

 _No one does._

I continued to walk until we entered a small office cubicle. The computer seemed to be dead based on Ashton deciding to hit the power button. He glanced around at papers, but I guess nothing of use. I let him explore for a moment or two, before I glanced out the glass window that showed what was outside this particular area. A space farther than the eye can see, with panels that built all kinds of rooms. Exactly what we saw back there. However, Ashton's jaw dropped as he stared out at it.

"How big is this place? It seems to stretch out for miles- I can't see the end in any direction!"

"It goes miles and miles down, too. Levels sealed off years ago. I accidently ended up down there when Wheatley broke the lift."

"Someone broke the lift?"

"Uh-Uh- Yeah. He's a real klutz. Um… Really good at breaking things." _Like my trust._

I kept walking. There were two entrances into test chambers, but I certainly wasn't interested. As we continued to walk, the pressing feeling that this place was too big for me to find Wheatley in landed on me. I mean, it would be like finding a notched needle in a needle stack. Ashton put a hand on my back, "Miss C?"

I was hyperventilating. It wasn't so much that I didn't notice, but that I tuned it out once I knew what it was. I put a hand on my chest and tried to focus on my breaths. He stood there for a minute, and I could tell by how hard he was looking at me that he was really trying to find something to say.

"Overwhelmed?" I was expecting one of his crappy jokes, but he apparently hadn't managed one for this situation.

I gave him a nod as my breaths finally gave away to a normal pace again. I could cancel out test chambers, because Wheatley had no arms or legs. Or any means of moving except his management rail, which I doubted he was on. However, going through test chambers would give me the opportunity to get to other parts of the facility. There had to be a way for staff to get there, right?

I started checking doors, but a lot of them were locked. I'm sure Ashton could've used his wrench to put them out of place, but that would likely alert GLaDOS and possibly not even be successful. Just like going through test chambers would not only tell her where we were, but also give her an extra-easy way to trap us. We found one of the circular doors, and went into a small square room, then into another hallway. It looked comparable to the last, except it had three of these doors at different places in the hallway.

"You would think there would be a map somewhere. How were employees were supposed to get around this place?"

"Maps wouldn't work. The place constantly changes. GLaDOS has the ability to move entire rooms at once, and often does for the 'betterment of the facility'. The employees were probably just given directions from point A to B and didn't need to worry about anything else."

Ashton sighed, "But wouldn't it be nice if there _was_ an accurate map?"

"Sure. But if we start listing things we don't have, we'll be here all day," I started walking again, and found myself back on a catwalk. There was a tube by me, which turrets were currently resting in. Red beams swung around, so I crashed myself into Ashton to knock him onto the catwalk in hopes of avoiding bullets.

"Uh, Miss C? Are you okay?"

"Those turrets are active!"

"What turrets?"

I looked up and realized there were cubes in the tube. Not even the ones that Wheatley made that were part turrets. Just cubes. Weighted storage cubes with no lasers or even any AI at all. I sighed and got off of Ashton, "I'm sorry."

"No apologies needed, Che," He stood up and dusted himself off. And boy, was there a lot of dust, "This isn't a good place. And you've been here before. It's kind of normal, at least in my book. Just try to warn me next time."

I was feeling more and more glad that Ashton came with me. Just having someone else to talk to while I was here made this place seem less daunting. I kept walking, stepping carefully as the catwalk creaked. Ashton laughed as we walked, "What are the chances this thing is going to collapse as we walk on it?"

"Roughly 8/10," I mumbled as I looked around for anything useful. Any sort of goal or destination would make me feel less antsy. Sure, I had "wherever Wheatley is" as a destination, and "save Wheatley" as a goal. But as of this moment, my odds of finding it were as good as shaking Cave Johnson's hand.

There was a broken catwalk that had at one time been aligned above us, but now leaned down and connected to our current one. It led up to a door above. Considering there was not a good way to get around it without a good odds of falling into the abyss, I decided to climb it. It seemed like it was connected to the wall pretty well still, and it was lodged pretty well into the catwalk we had just been on. I could tell from his sharp inhales each time it creaked or budged at all that it made Ashton nervous.

The door pushed open and gave away to another set of hallways. I sighed and took the one to our right.

Nothing of importance happened for a few hours. Endless hallways, catwalks, and a few jumps to speak of. At one point I got on Ashton's shoulders and climbed into the footing for a door before opening it and pulling him up. That was the most exciting thing that happened until what had to be six hours. Occasionally. we'd duck into a room to take a very quick break to rehydrate and catch our breath. Then it'd be back into the fray.

I was almost horrified by the amount of cores in the storage room we found. The shelves were aligned neatly, and hundreds of cores lay in wait. I frowned as I walked along the aisles with my hand out to feel along the offline cores. Each one of them looked exactly the same. The only difference between cores physically was their eyes, but all of these cores had their eyes shut. I looked at Ashton and pointed to the one next to me, "This is what Wheatley looks like. When this opens, it has an eye. His is blue-"

"Wait- _**That's**_ what he looks like? You're saving one of _those_?"

I crossed my arms, raising my chin a little in an attempt to seem more confident in myself, "Yes, I am."

"Chell- Oh, nevermind," He huffed and rolled his eyes before continuing down to the next door. However, the next room was full of cores too, so we decided to head back to the main hallway, "You really are mental, aren't you?"

I wanted to laugh and tell him that they once thought I had brain damage, but I felt like he would've tried to leave. Tried and failed, probably died, but he would've tried. He followed me down the hallway, and we continued in silence for the time being. I forgot how prone I was to being quiet down here. It was a whole other world down here.

In the distance, we could hear metal banging. It sounded like an ugly pinball machine that gave the helpless ball no way out. It probably had a cube in it, trapped until GLaDOS noticed and fizzled it out. If she ever did. But as we progressed down the hallways, the noise just got louder, "I want to know what that is."

I shook my head and kept walking. I heard him go left and quickly ran back to him with an urge to smack him. I stomped my foot to try and signal him back, but instead he made a motion for me to follow. I gave a quiet sigh with as much aggravation as I could muster and followed him. Might as well let him lead, his guess was as good as mine as to where we should go.

I stumbled a little when I stepped on something that rolled instead of crushing beneath my boots. I picked up a rusty, corroded looking screw. I couldn't tell if it had been there a while or if it came from the pinball-thing that wasn't that far off anymore. For all I knew, it was both.

I swore I could hear mumbling. I caught up with Ashton, but when I looked his lips were pressed together into a line of focus. I noticed soon that the 'mumbling' was bouncing off the walls. It began to sound like repeating syllables over and over again. I glanced over at Ashton, and I guessed by the way he looked around that he had taken notice too.

"Ow… Ow… Ow…" When I noticed what the syllable was, my heart started to race like it was the one that put whatever it was there. What in Aperture Science could feel pain? Turrets said 'ow' sometimes, but it was rapid and I wasn't sure whether or not they actually felt things or if it was an attempt to make test subjects feel bad. This sound was slow and almost sounded like it itself made the sounder ache. It came every couple of hits we heard, and I'm certain that's why we both picked up the pace without a word to signal one another.

We entered a room. It looked like an old, scrapped testing chamber. Around the corner were large metal plates, jutting out to oppose the metal ball bouncing around. I could tell now that it was where the 'ow's were coming from. It was covered in blue repulsion gel, making it bounce quite a lot more.

About the time I was certain it was a core, it slipped out and hit the floor. Ashton and I had dodged to separate sides, thankfully, because a panel of the floor tossed the core back in.

 _Wheatley. That blue optic._

I tossed myself forward. My hand shot out and wrapped around his handle. The repulsion gel made him tremble in my fist like mad as it tried to do it's job. I ran and dunked him under the cleaning gel before bolting out. If I hadn't instantly set off alarms for GLaDOS just then, they would be going off any moment. As my feet hammered down the stairs, I could hear her in that room, "Where did you fall to now? Oh, are you already too broken to be heavy enough to be picked up by the pressure sensors?"

I heard the sound of all the panels in that room shifting, "... Where _**are**_ you?"

Once she stopped talking, I finally tuned in to what Wheatley was saying, "Hello? Please, tell me who you are. Just say something… Anything. Anything will do. Not that- Not that I'm not thankful for you grabbing me- thanks for that and all- It's just-"

"Miss C? Aren't you going to say something to your friend?"

I had forgotten to tell Ashton why I didn't speak down here. It was fine when we were alone, but we weren't anymore. Now he could hear me, and maybe even Her if she'd already caught up with us on her cameras. I shook my head at his question, and Wheatley continued to ramble, "Oh, Miss C is it?" Well, nice to meet you, Miss Miss C. I'm Wheatley, and I am _**bloody**_ thankful that you saved me-"

"Che, I can't keep going like this much longer. And your friend looks like he could use a screwdriver and maybe a hammer."

I could tell Wheatley's pupil went to it's smallest state by the glow on the wall, or lack thereof, "No! No hammers needed! No hammers at all required in this situation, thank you! Uh- however, it would be brilliant if you could replace my screws. And maybe even my handle, if you're feeling really generous."

I ducked into an alcove in the wall. For the first time in ages, I saw one of the paintings that used to guide me. They creeped me out a little, often depicting myself in a situation of some sort. Other times they seemed to be made by a madman, which didn't help my concerns. This one was just as creepy as the old, this time depicting me and Ashton crouching with a third party I didn't recognize. A big, red X crossed out the picture, but the three of us were unmarked in the bottom of the X and the triangle it made with the bottom of the wall. I frowned at it, then looked down at Wheatley.

I shifted him into both my hands so his optic could see me. HIs eye stared up at me, and his pupil shrank again, "Oh."

I handed him to Ashton and slung off my backpack. The two of us sat down and I pulled out a can of spaghettios. I started downing them with a plastic spoon as Ashton pulled his tool kit out and began putting fresh screws into The loose 'faceplate' that Wheatley had, which had often had swung of and hit me in the leg, leaving his optic behind, unencased, "Uh- It's- Er- Ow- Nice to- Ow- See you again!"

I looked away from them both and continued to shovel in spaghettios to give myself a visible reason to Ashton for me not to speak, "I-I need to say- Owwww careful on the ol' handlebar, please. It's loose. I used to have two of 'em… Wonder where that fellow went."

"Right now, the ground next to my leg. I'll get it in when I'm done working on your faceplate," Ashton told him as he worked away, "Gotta say. This is the weirdest thing I've done by far."

"I do bet it's a bit odd! Are you from the surface then? Up there where there's sun and a sky and everything? And humans?"

Ashton laughed and nodded as he set his faceplate into place and began tightening the screws he placed, "Yeah, that's where I come from. Does that make me an alien down here?"

I glanced over in time to see Wheatley's pupil shrink, "There are _no_ such things as aliens."  
"Hey, you don't know that! Have you seen all of space?"

"Not all of it, no. Quite a bit of it, though. Not once did I see anything else but asteroids and planets… And a fellow core of mine… Wonder how he's getting along up there…"

"You've been to space?" Ashton sounded quite skeptical, and I almost snorted looking at him. He had paused with his screwdriver resting in the screw, and it almost looked like he was threatening Wheatley to get him to tell the truth."

"Indeed I have. Was up there quite a while. Not sure how long though- I don't understand you humans' concept of time. I'd say a few decades, if I had to guess."

Ashton looked over at me, and I put up three fingers to signify the years. Ashton laughed and looked down at him, grinning as he finished off the screw, "Your story checks out. Wow… I'd love to see space. I bet it's cool-"

"No, no, no. It's not cool. It's cold, and dark, and lonely. And it gives you… _**way**_ too much time to think. Way, way too much… An obscene amount, really. Redundant, if you ask me. Redundant. Oh- Uh- Speaking of which, when you're done with that, can you turn me to space her for a tick?"

I sat my can down, just a little left, and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. I glanced back over at the illustration and shook my head. Usually the painters' signs were straightforward, and I could get some sort of concept as to what they meant. But I wasn't sure this time. Was it a sign I shouldn't have come back? And who was that third guy?

"Ah, Miss Miss C?" It was strange hearing someone but Ashton call me that. I glanced over at the core as he twitched, but I figured that was still the damage from the time he _woke GLaDOS up_. I raised my eyebrows, keeping my eyes narrowed and my lips in a firm frown, "Ah, er… Um… Well, you see- I just wanted to- Uh… About all that, you know, back in the day… Fun times, really… Well… except… not fun. Um, anyways, what I was going to say was… Was-"

"I can hear you talking, you know. Who's in there with you? Is it the robots? Did they leave their chamber- No, no they're still there. Are you talking to dead turrets again?"

Back to his tiny pupil, Wheatley started stuttering even more than before,, "Uh- Er- I guess it'll have to- to wait- Um… Until later… For now, She's… _**probably**_ not going to give up until she gets a response out of me- Uh- What should I- I say?"

"The truth would benefit you more. Maybe I'll reduce your 4,000 years in android hell to 3,999. How does that sound?"

"Uh… That's very kind of you! But… um… you see- What do I do."

Ashton looked at me and I motioned to towards the sound the speaker was coming from. I mouthed 'Her' at him. His eyes went wide, and had it not been in this scenario, I would've found it funny how similar it was to Wheatley's blue pupil changing size so rapidly. I slowly stood up, back pressed against the wall. If I had a portal gun, this would be easy. But I didn't.

I looked at them and pointed to Wheatley, then gave a questioning thumbs up. Ashton looked down and tapped on the faceplate, and pulled at the handle, which gained some groans from Wheatley, "Ey! Be careful on those, I feel starkers without them, you know!"

"Hey, it's thanks to me you have them back, now shut it!" Ashton hissed at him quietly. His pupil went away from him.

"Alrighty, so what's the plan?" Although he made his voice more raspy like a whisper, it was no quieter. If anything it was a little louder. I rolled my eyes and grabbed onto him and put my backpack back on. I stared hungrily at my spaghettios, but admitted defeat in the realization we had to go. As that occurred to me, a panel smashed into our alcove. I just barely jumped in time, pulling Ashton with me while I kept one arm hooked through his handle. I went to railing of the catwalk. One glance as Ashton told me he had no interest in jumping to the catwalk we could barely see below. I didn't have time to worry about it. I shoved Wheatley into his hands and picked him up.

Wheatley looked up wearily at him as I assumed he caught on,, "How's your grip, mate?"

"Guess we're gonna find out."

I ran down the catwalk and slung us over the railing, panting from the weight of holding them. We landed safely on the catwalk, but my knees almost buckled from holding them. It's true that the boots took the impact, but they weren't equipped to hold the weight unevenly distributed weight of two people and a core. I set them down and ducked us into a hallway of offices.

"Is that _her_?" GLaDOS' voice sent chills down my spine.


	2. 1 - Loss

**Author's Note: Hello everyone! I first wanted to thank everyone for the positive reviews on the first chapter! I really wanted to be sure this chapter was worked out well, which is why it took a little longer than I meant for it to. I also _forgot_ to credit my beta-reader last chapter! I feel so bad! Thanks _so much_ ****to _PixelsShattered_ for their help on my first chapter! Unfortunately I didn't hear back from them over the weekend (which is fine, life gets busy) and I've read it through many times myself, so I've decided to go ahead and upload this chapter.**

 **Please understand that this is my take on the Portal universe and things may vary from how you believe they will go. That being said, I am doing my best to stick to everything we do know for a fact in the cannon. I've never worked with characters like GLaDOS or Wheatley before, so it may be tough. I've never wrote with a character that doesn't speak under certain circumstances. (That's proven to be very tough in expressing her emotions...)**

 **That being said, _constructive_ criticism is always welcome. And, with that, enjoy!**

* * *

I almost crashed forward when I heard her voice. I leaned against the wall as my chest heaved air in and out. I could feel myself tremble, and I knew it wasn't from the fall. Those were a dime-a-dozen around here, and the weight didn't wind me _**that badly**_. Wheatley had continued to chatter on about how wonderful Ashton's grip on him had been, but he quickly shut down his rambling when he saw me behind Ashton's arm, "Miss Miss C?"

I shook my head and shifted back on my feet. I started to walk and went to walk past them. Ashton put his arm out, incidentally taking Wheatley with it. I grabbed him and continued, shoving past Ashton's arm, "Well alright, Miss Attitude. I was just trying to make you take a break."

I shook my head and waved for him to follow for him to follow. He sighed, "You really don't like to address your personal problems, do you, Chell?"

I shook my head again. Wheatley spoke instead, which I was glad for since it meant time I didn't have to communicate through head movements and hand signals any further , "Miss C, Che, Chell, what _**is**_ her name?"

Ashton snorted, "You're her friend and don't even know her name?"

"Ah- We're friends?" I could hear his voice cheer up. I sighed and shook my head as we walked.

"Uh- Well… She told me you two were but she… just said no?"

I could hear the airless sigh from the robot, "Oh. Well, I can't blame her… Right! Right, about that. Um- What I was saying earlier- Um… Would you mind turnin' me so I can see you, luv?"

I considered ignoring him and continuing to walk. Honestly though, I didn't want to hear his response to me ignoring him. It'd either be self-pity or begging, neither of which I was in the mood for. I turned the core so my hand hooked into one handle and my palm held the opposite side of his core, "Thanks, um- Oh, please, don't be miffed at me. Oh… but if you are, you probably should be. Yeah… probably should be. But- But what I wanted to say was-"

" _There you are_ ," I shoved Ashton into one of the rooms and waited for bullets to fire as I ducked in after him. But there was nothing. I turned around and looked through the glass, and all I could see was an empty hallway. I pulled Wheatley away from my torso to see if he seemed as confused as I did, and he did.

Just not at the right thing, "What was that about?"

Ashton sat up as he rubbed the back of his head, which hit the chair as he fell, "That's what _**I'd**_ like to know. That's the second time she's done that to me. Never any warning, no signal just, boom. Ashton, in a chair. Or a catwalk."

I kept my eyes locked on the hallway. I backed up and handed Wheatley to Ashton, before I slowly creeped into the hallway. I looked up and down the hall, but there was nothing. No turrets. No bullets. No 'I see you' or 'Target acquired'. It was silent, besides the two boys' grumbling. I sighed and walked back in the room and shot Ashton an apologetic look, "Oh come on. At least _**say**_ you're sorry."

I nodded to try and simulate the same effect, but he just looked angrier, "Why won't you speak to me all of the sudden! What happened between us getting here and us finding that guy?"

"Uh… Er… She's mute- Or, at least, that's what I noticed. Never once spoke a word to me. Just jumped… Occasionally nodded. Usually just followed directions from me… or-"

"She isn't mute! She speaks to me all the time! She spoke to me right up until we found _you_! I don't get it, and I want an explanation! And I'm not playing charades!"

"She _spoke_ to you?" Wheatley's pupil went wide as he looked up at me, "You can _talk_?"

I gritted my teeth together and looked away from both of them. I was just going to nod, but I knew that that would only tick Ashton off more. I sat down and took Wheatley from him, I turned him to face Ashton so I didn't feel so watched. I considered speaking, I even opened my mouth to do so. Then, though, I saw the dead-on glare from Ashton, and I averted my eyes from him. I had no reason to speak to him.

"Seriously? You're not- Ugh!" Ashton stood up and kicked a trashcan before he let out a rough sigh, "I just want to know _**why**_ you don't want to speak. Haven't- Haven't I been pretty tolerant? I brought you here, I helped you _**find this guy**_. I didn't press on questions when you broke us out of the elevator or when you pushed me the first time- I didn't even question why you know this place or why you care so much about a dumb machine!"

Wheatley's optic flickered down, "C'mon, mate, I didn't insult you-"

"And now you won't even _tell me_ why you won't speak now that he's here! We could step into the hallway if you don't want him to hear-"

I aggressively pointed towards the ceiling. I motioned towards the hallways. He clearly didn't get it, "Seriously! Come on-"

I stood up and held onto Wheatley's handle with one hand. I started down the hall, and could hear Ashton's heavy feet behind me, "Chell! Now where are you going?"

"Ay- Um- Miss Miss C? Um- Do you- Do you have a moment to listen? See- I was just- I was wondering where we're going and um- If he's supposed to be following. 'Cause see, he's stomping behind us, fuming mad. And uh… I don't feel so secure being held by one hand- Ah!" I squeezed the handle as tight as I could. "Ow- Okay, okay, got it, nevermind, sorry. Forgot, your grip is magnificent. My bad."

"So you're just going to walk away?"

I kept my eyes set ahead of me. I knew GLaDOS was watching my every move, so I had come up with a plan quickly. This was getting progressively harder by each moment that Ashton was yelling behind me. As I got to a catwalk, I looked up above us. The facility stretched up towards the sky, and I wasn't sure how I was going to get out there. I knew that even the ceiling that loomed so far above me wasn't near the surface of the earth at all. I had no good way to get higher up though. Again, I felt myself ache for the portal gun that used to help me in these situations.

I didn't realize my pace slowed down until something hit my shoulder. My hand flew to Wheatley's other handle and I swung him into whatever it was. All I could think was, " _You're not taking me this time, GLaDOS_." In unison, both Wheatley and the assailant cried out 'ows'. Wheatley screamed as I let go with one hand, and I allowed his momentum to swing my arm out. His little core body went out over the edge of the railing before it lost momentum and went back down with my hand. I stopped him just in time to keep him from hitting my leg.

Ashton held his arm tight, curled onto his side. I slowly sat Wheatley down and walked to him. I hesitated before I crouched down next to him. Ashton looked like he was going to shove me away, but he held on hard to his shoulder. I noticed there was a cut on his side from what I had to assume was the handle when Wheatley turned on the return, and blood was seeping through the grate of the catwalk to down below. I felt my stomach curl as I tried to push him onto his back. Of all the scientifically-designed hells I saw here, I never had to deal with an injured human.

He pushed hard against me as I tried to force him onto his back. I grit my teeth together as he struggled to stay in his current position, "Get off me!"

I pushed harder. I felt myself start to sweat as I watched the blood drops turn to a subtle stream down to whatever what was below us. I could imagine the back of a panel as drops of blood splattered like the gels across the top. I finally brought my hand up and smacked him as hard as I could across the face. He looked even angrier for a moment, before he finally rolled onto his back. He groaned and I saw him lace his fingers into the catwalk.

His arm had a pretty ragged spot. I must've caught him with the back of Wheatley's core, there was a black port hat plugged him into the various connectors around Aperture. It looked like his skin had got caught in it and went on with it. I wanted to release all the food from the gas station into the chasm below, but I held my jaw shut tight and pulled the first aid kid out of my backpack. Wheatley piped up as I searched for the correct supplies, "What's going on? Keep me up to date, alright? Um… What was that all about, luv?"

I started to clean at his arm. He'd jerk his feet back when I hit a particularly sensitive, deep piece of the damage. His fingers were so tight around the grating that his knuckles were turning white. I finally wrapped bandages around it before I began to work on his side. It was a much simpler cut, but it definitely looked like it was going to need stitches. At least it wasn't like the other one, which practically looked like it was going to need a skin graph. I got to my feet and offered him my hand. He gave me an apprehensive look as his fingers slowly eased off the grating, probably sore from the temporary groves it wore into his skin.

I tried to smile at him as I bit my lip a little. I knit my eyebrows together and tried to look apologetic as he took my hand. I got him to his feet before I grabbed onto Wheatley's handle and stared on again, "You wouldn't be much fun at surprise parties, huh?"

His voice was rough and only half-hearted, but I knew he was honestly trying to mend the awkwardness between the two of us. I nodded and headed into the next hallway. I decided that all the rooms were likely offices. If only Aperture used staircases more often. They were so focused on lifts, I felt like they forgot to put more than one staircase per massive level. I glanced around as I looked for any kind of sign that might indicate stairs. However, it probably wasn't likely they had navigational signs in such a ever-changing place.

" _Oh, there you are. You almost lost me, back there._ " My chest felt heavy, and I pulled Wheatley tight to my chest before the both of us bolted down the hallway. A wall closed me off from continuing suddenly, nearly taking the toe of my boot with it. I started a cold sweat as Ashton took the lead on our way back. However, a wall stopped us there too. We were trapped. There was a door to either side, but all of the offices ended in a dead end. I had little reason to believe these two were any different.

"Ah! Don't panic- Don't panic- Um- Er- I mean, she probably won't kill you- right? She- I bet she won't kill you, or him. So don't panic, okay, luv?"

But I was panicking. I didn't have a portal gun. I didn't have a way out of the box. There was no button or switch. There wasn't a gel or a puzzle to solve. I reminded myself there was always a way out, but all I had was four flat walls, a floor, a ceiling, a metal ball with handles, and an equal human being. I glanced around quietly as I tried to think of something.

Ashton ran to the office door to our right and threw it open before he realized himself that it was a dead end. I could tell by his paling face that he knew the other would be the same, but he ran for it anyways. When he threw it open, I could see tears sprouting in the corner of his eyes as the realization that we were caught set in. I wanted to scream out of frustration that GLados hadn't even given us a solution - she always did, she loved to test after all -, but I kept my composure. I held steady in my stance and slowly lowered Wheatley to one hand at my side. GLaDOS was nothing if not a lover of puzzles. It wasn't like her to not have a way out.

She really loved to test.

I pressed along the walls, but they were all sturdy and steady in their progression towards one another. I reached Wheatley above me and pressed his handle against the ceiling to see if all of the tiles were sturdy. They didn't budge easily, but I could feel them give a little. Wheatley quietly complained about being used as a tool, but we both knew we didn't have time to argue. I looked at Ashton and nodded my head upwards, "What?"

I walked to him and sat Wheatley carefully at his feet. I looked at him and motioned up again. I could tell he wanted to hesitate, but he and I both knew there wasn't time. He lifted me up, and as he lifted me higher I pushed the tiles out of the way above me. Once I could hook my hands around the metal bars that lined the ceiling from above, I hoisted myself up into it. It was a small crawlspace, but it was better than nothing. I pointed to Wheatley and motioned up.

As Ashton lifted Wheatley up, I heard a loud noise that sounded similar to metal making a hard impact, " _Hello?_ "

I fell through the ceiling and landed on my stomach. I pushed myself up with my hands as I tried to get my bearings while I looked around desperately for the turret. This was it, I was going to die here. I had dragged Ashton into this, and now he was going to die with me as a result. Ashton and Wheatley were speaking frantically and trying to get me onto my feet, but I wasn't sure why. We were done.

Except there was no turret. I glanced around, and saw the room was just as blank as before, "W-What fell…?"

"You did," Ashton was trying not to laugh.

"Quite a hard fall, too. Are you okay, luv?"

I pulled away from Ashton and glanced around one more time. What had I heard? I glanced up into the moved tile. It hadn't been up there, had it? I would've noticed if there had been a turret. Ashton pulled on my sleeve, "C'mon, we've gotta move!"

" _You're not going anywhere,"_ I watched in horror as a large wall of white panels slid above the others to block us from the ceiling. I almost yelled as I desperately ran under the tile we'd brought loose. I tried to pull myself up on Ashton's shoulders, but he wasn't prepared and we fell back as the ceiling closed over it, _"I see you were using your minute little brain while I was preparing your transport. Even I didn't think you would attempt to use the ceiling as a means of escape. Congratulations. I think it's time we introduce your_ _ **friend**_ _to Aperture Science's Testing Facility. Don't you?"_

I hooked my arm tight around one of Ashton's. My other hand wrapped tight around one of Wheatley's handles. I felt the floor drop out from beneath us. I did my best to lift Ashton a little, and pulled my feet beneath me. We landed in a lift, which had an open top. It closed, and we started racing down. I watched helplessly as we passed several floors, drawing us further and further away from the surface.

"Chell… What's going to happen to us now?" Ashton sounded almost numb with terror as he watched the brief images of the rooms we passed. I had dragged this poor high school kid out away from his home, and brought him here. Now she had another test subject. Now he was never going to get to go back and get the title to his car fixed. He was never going to make it back to Matty for work in three days. I would never be able to thank him properly for all he did.

Because now we were _**stuck**_ in Hell.

The lift finally stopped. When it opened, we were sucked into a gaping tube. The air pressure carried us along, and it was hard to hold on to them. Ashton was behind me, and Wheatley was in front. I watched as we traveled so far above any sort of bottom to the pit that it was out of sight, hazed over by fog created by human minds due to the distance. I saw dozens of rooms built up of panels, and I knew what they held. I felt my stomach curl as it all really set in. I was trapped by GLaDOS again.

I felt my heart sink when the air pressure sucked Wheatley away from me to a path to my right, "Grab me!"

I tried to stop myself from moving, but it only resulted in the loss of a few layers of skin from how fast we were moving when I touched the glass of the tube. He was the entire reason we came here, and she had to rip him away from me too. I watched as he became a small speck in the distance as he was transported to a room I could only imagine would kill him. I didn't figure she'd be playing pinball with him anymore.

Ashton's grip got tighter, and I could see why before me. There was a fork in the tube, leading to two different directions. Regardless, I held on tighter too. Maybe she wouldn't separate us. Maybe she would keep us together so she could remind as both at the same time that we failed. I looked at Ashton. I tried to say sorry, but the air swallowed it and nearly choked me for trying. I was sort of thankful for that, because it meant I hadn't really spoken, but Ashton did deserve an apology. He smiled knowingly at me and looked ahead.

The split in the tube tore us apart. We let go at the very last second as we were cast away from one another, as opposed to letting the tube break every bone in our hands. The tubes seemed to go along one another for a little while, which probably meant GLaDOS chose this specifically to separate us as early on as possible. She could've let us stay together longer, but it would be more fun for her this way. I looked over into Ashton's tube, and he faced forward with a his eyebrows knit together and a hard frown. He tried to stop his movement like I did but with his feet, but he didn't gain much result. His shoes came off and he managed to get flipped so he was racing along head-first.

The last thing I saw before our tubes went exact opposite directions was his grin. He turned to me and grinned before the tubes jerked us in opposite directions. Even in this chaos, he was trying to stay positive. How could I blame him? He had nothing to fear yet. He didn't know about the turrets and lasers. He didn't know about the deadly liquid they used as an obstacle. He didn't know about the puzzles that leave you thinking for an hour sometimes, and how impatient that made GLaDOS. He had no idea, and I didn't prepare him. I should've prepared him.

I finally landed next to a lift. I could see the door ahead with the familiar blue figure on it. I considered standing there to see her response, but instead I walked through the door. On a pedestal of sorts sat a black and white device with a small Aperture Science logo in the form of a split up circle. I stared at it a long moment and glanced around, " _Once you have the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, we can get started._ "

GLaDOS' voice almost sounded like it didn't care whether or not I grabbed it. I knew she cared. She told me what felt much closer to an hour ago than three years ago that there was a constant need to test built into her mainframe. It drove Wheatley insane, he'd referred to it as an 'itch' that grew to unbearable heights unless a test was completed. Even then, it usually ached on.

I knew that if I stood here, she would likely do something to make me have to grab the portal gun. She probably would deploy turrets so I would have to take care of them, or make the floor start to disappear so I'd have to use the gun to travel to safety. I slowly slipped my hand into the familiar shape with a wave of nostalgia similar to the one I felt when I saw the shack what felt both felt like merely moments ago, and like a lifetime ago. Lifted it off the pedestal and used my other hand to support the weight of the device while the one inside held onto the trigger of sorts.

I made my way to the door, and it opened. I walked down the set of stairs that led to the lift and watched as the outer and inner layer doors opened. Once I made my way in, GLaDOS decided to talk to me again, " _I would like to congratulate you on deciding to devote your life to science. I mean,_ _ **you**_ _did devote your life this time. You're the one who came back. How generous of you to bring a friend."_

I kept my eyes locked on the bars outside of my lift that passed as I went down. Soon, the lift slowed to a halt and I made my way into the next testing room.

When the doors opened, I heard a series of 'target acquired.' I threw myself back, but my back hit the door as the emancipation grill flittered about around halfway through me. Upon analyzing the room, I realized there were no turrets in range of seeing me. There was a lifted platform with glass around it that turrets awaited in, and I could tell by the tube above it that cubes came out there.

I mentally huffed as I thought how I _**really**_ didn't need imaginary turrets - especially in a room full of real ones - and started my way around the room. As I expected, a button released the cube perfectly behind the group of turrets. I shot a portal on the wall and the other above them before I dropped onto the cube. I tossed each one into the portal above me and the gravity of the other dimension pulled them to the ground. Below me, they fired out all their bullets and shut down. I hopped up and grabbed the cube from beneath me so I had enough height to get through the portal. I landed on my feet and nudged a deactivated turret along the floor as I did.

I put the cube on the button, which activated a laser. I shot a portal where it aimed and one across from the receiver. The panels on the floor created a staircase so I could get up to the door, and I exited, " _I see your brain is still intact. Well, as intact as someone with severe brain damage's brain can be anyways._ "

I walked slowly into the lift and heard the two doors - one to the lift and one to the outer casing - close behind me. I took my time turning around. I mostly kept my eyes focused on the floor, because the last thing I wanted to see was the walls around the lift as they showed me just how much farther from the surface completing that test had put me, " _I'm sure you'll be glad to know that your friend completed his first test as well. He only was grazed by one bullet before he caught on."_

I imagined Ashton bleeding in the cameras of an uncaring AI. I imagined him glancing at his already wounded arm, and the new wound, wondering if he was going to bleed out by the end of this. I realized about then that I was missing my backpack. I glanced at my shoulders and made the assumption that it must've come off in the lift without me noticing. I wondered if it had popped out behind me, waiting for me to pick it up, just for me not to notice and continue on into the test chambers.

I hoped she had been serious when she said "graze." In GLaDOS terms, that could mean it went right through the bone in his arm. I was certain things like that was of her own masochism, and not her lack of knowledge. She was too smart to mistake a vital wound for a 'graze.' She sure loved to talk like she wasn't though.

" _Perhaps that will stand as a lesson for him from now on. Who knows. Even you get grazed by bullets sometimes._ "

My lift came to a halt, and I watched the 'safety' animatic on the panels around me as I walked out. Something about retrieving the portal gun from dead test subjects. I headed into my next chamber.

I was ten chambers in. I was drenched in sweat, and catching my breath was starting to get difficult. It wasn't exactly like I was over exerting myself, but based on what my therapist had previously told me, it was stress. I had a fresh graze on my leg from a turret I didn't see in the vents - and what was it doing there anyway? It didn't contribute to the chamber at all other than hindering me blindly - which was starting to cause a nice stain around the fresh hole in the leg of my jumpsuit.

As the door to chamber ten opened, I was met with a very casual looking test. It looked simple, like the kind I had started out with when first started all those years ago. There as a glass wall with a big button on either side, as well as two pressable buttons with distributors that looked like where I'd gain a cube. However, there was something even odder about it. There were two emancipation grills, one on either side of the glass wall, inches from it I would say. There was also another door aside from the one I entered through and what looked like the exit.

As I took notice of this, that very door opened. Through it walked another person in an orange jumpsuit. Someone with a huge volume of reddish hair, with their hand held somewhat protectively inside of the shell of the portal gun as they walked into the room, " _Well done you two. Or, at least that's what I'd say if you hadn't taken twice the calculated amount of time to get here. Welcome to the Aperture Science Co-Operative Program portion of your testing._ "

That was it. There was no further explanation. He looked up at me and his eyes went from a dull sort of look to a much more awake one. I could her him call 'Miss Che?' through the glass, and I quickly glanced around. I went to my button and pressed it, then stepped aside in anticipation of the cube. However, his dispenser opened, and the cube dropped down by his side. I nodded to myself then looked at Ashton. I motioned to the button, and he made his way to it and pressed it.

I caught the cube and put it on my button. He watched me a moment, and followed suit. The glass opened, and only the material emancipation grill remained. I calmly walked through it, " _Good work. Except it seems one of you were certainly leading that test. However, most subjects fail this test, so I suppose I should congratulate you. 30% of test subjects won't press the button for their partner, ending in a stalemate until and Aperture associate gives up on them. 40% don't both make it through when the test subject on the side with the exit realizes putting their cube on the button opens the exit. They leave without helping their partner. The other 10% that fail do so by miscellaneous mistakes, such as believing they need to get to the other side by portals._ "

I guess since I put my cube on the button first, we didn't encounter the same situation as the 40%. Ashton walked alongside me to the exit. Through the door was a pair of elevators rather than just one. One had a blue and orange aperture symbol, while the other had a red and green. Ashton glanced at me, then stepped into the oddly colored one.

I stepped into my respective one, and our lifts moved us downward in unison. Walls stood between us as we went down, and I realized that we may've just lost our chance to communicate. It was probable that we were going to do our own separate tests again. I felt a rush of disappointment lay over me as this dawned on me. If we had a chance to escape, that last test was it. I bet somehow, GLaDOS knew it. She had expected us to try to escape.

However, our lifts stopped in the same place, and we both walked off into the next room.

When we entered, Ashton grabbed onto my arm with his free hand. I noticed the portal gun was on his left hand. I never realized he was a lefty. He spoke quietly, "Has she mentioned Wheatley?"

I shook my head and he sighed. As he looked at the puzzle around us, he looked completely lost. It was hard for me to keep a grasp on the fact that he was completely out of his element. While I wouldn't exactly call this mine, I was certainly used to it. He seemed to barely grasp what I guided him to do.

When we got the lifts this time, he looked anxious, "I don't like being separated… It… I don't want to go back to being alone here. There's… There's _nobody_ else here..."

I nodded, and we stood in silence for a moment. I contemplated the fact that Ashton had probably never been in a space of this size - or a size close to this for that matter- with as few as two humans. I knew thanks to my therapist that humans have a sort of programmed-in desire for human connections, so he mind was probably in some sort of state of panic in all of the emptiness Aperture Science held. I wondered how he would react if I explained to him just how big Aperture Science is.

GLaDOS piped in with what almost sounded like an automated response, " _Please proceed into your respective lifts to continue testing_."

Ashton was trembling so bad that I wondered if a simple poke would knock him over. I put my hand on his back between his shoulders and eased him into the lift. I glared hard at the camera that watched us as I made my way to my own lift. Ashton gave me a weary smile as we plummeted down again.

Ashton slowly caught on with the ways of Aperture. As he slowly seemed to accept our situation, I could see the realization on his face when I helped him with puzzles. He started to understand the concept of what would and wouldn't protect you from turrets, and the two different ways to redirect lasers. He started to understand he could follow the dots to see what buttons connected to what.

The hard light bridges made him nervous. He didn't trust them when he saw them, so I switched our places in my plan for the puzzle. Through a portal I had placed off to the side, I could see his shock that it held me up. He gingerly set a foot on it the light bridge as I placed a portal to extend the light bridge across the room. He seemed even more mystified when I went through it and continued on my way towards the button across from the panel I placed the portal on.

It released a cube which landed by Ashton's side. As I returned through the portal and back to him, he set it on the button. From there on out it was basic discouragement redirection cubes, but they seemed to frighten Ashton. Apparently he'd almost burnt himself while he had still been testing alone because he hadn't held the cube the right way. So, I opted to aim it at the wall and let him place the portal to direct it to the receiver. Then we just had to portal to the door and we were on our way once again.

As we walked, Ashton put a hand on my shoulder. I paused to look at him as he leaned closer so I could hear his whispers, "We have to get out of here, Chell."

I nodded and glanced at the cameras carefully that were watching us. I could heard Ashton almost growl as he followed my gaze, " _Please proceed into your respective lifts to continue testing_."

I started to walk, but Ashton's hand stayed firm and did budge. I turned to look at him, and saw his eyebrows were knitted together, "That's it? You- You just thought about it and are gonna continue on?"

I put a hand on his hand and raised my eyebrows to him. I would've loved to hear his plan. He kept his eyes locked on mine for a long moment as I guessed he finally got the message, " _Please proceed into your respective lifts to continue testing._ "

We finally listened to what she said. As we got in the elevators, I waved to Ashton before we headed down. I had to raise his spirits or else he was going to succumb to this place soon enough. He had to understand, escaping took time. A lot of time. And time passed very _slowly_ here.

We came to a halt at the bottom. Ashton paused, "GLaDOS?"

Silence.

"GLaDOS? I know you're there- I just have a question… Not about getting out or anything. I just have a question- How long have we been down here?"

I guessed a day, though it was likely it'd been a couple of days. It sure felt like it. I didn't expect GLaDOS to respond, but the two of us stood there for what had to have been a couple of minutes in silence, " _Please proceed to the testing area._ "

"I will- I will. Just tell me that first. Please?"

I shook my head and started to walk past him. However, Ashton grabbed on hard to my hand and held me there. I glanced at him and tugged on my arm, but his grip was tight. He had no plans to let go. He shook his head and fixated his eyes back on a camera, "It's just a span of time I want to know. That's all."

" _Please proceed to the testing area._ "

GLaDOS didn't have any sort of human compassion under typical circumstances. I had only once seen her show any, and that was when she saved me from flying out into space with Wheatley. She didn't care if it wouldn't help us to know, she wanted us to know she was in charge and we had no leeway. She didn't want us to think that we could convince her to do anything. I shook my head again and pulled my arm out of his grasp.

The door didn't open when I got to it. I guessed I had to have Ashton with me, so I waved to him to come on. He crossed his arms and shook his head. I stomped my foot and motioned at the door, but he stayed still. One of the lifts began to move, and a box tumbled out. Ashton glanced over his shoulder at it. I lurched for him and seized his wrist before I bolted into the chamber.

The door closed behind us and the pangs of gunfire were easily audible behind us, but it seemed the bullets weren't strong enough to dent any of the metal on our side, "Not even the date, huh…"

"I can't keep going," Ashton heaved breaths in and out as we exited the test chamber. He fell on his knees as his portal gun clattered in front of him and slid a little. He couldn't seem to catch his breath, and his chest seemed labored with each breath he managed. I stopped and crouched down next to him,then scanned what little I could see of his face.

" _Please proceed to your respective lifts to continue testing._ "

"Can't you see I can't! Can't you see I'm exhausted?" Except that the air in Aperture gives you energy. This wasn't physical exhaustion with muscles that ached and too many calories burnt. This was his mind as it caved in to the fact that he had to keep going, that there was no end in sight to work towards. I could relate to the feeling. I reached for his portal gun with my unarmed hand. I tried to hand it to him but his hand knocked it hard across the floor. It skidded almost all the way to the lifts, "I don't want that thing! I-"

" _Please proceed to your respective lifts to continue testing."_

"can't keep going!" His voice just got louder to drown out hers. His elbows gave and his face hit the floor, and he seemed to opt just to lay there.

I tapped on his shoulder, but he wouldn't look at me. I tried to move his face, but he pulled against me. I finally stood up and went to his gun and hit it with the toe of my boot. The power behind the kick was only strong enough to bump his head but not so much to hurt him, so I didn't worry to much about it, " _Please do not play soccer with the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device._ "

This tempted me to kick it again, but I didn't want to prompt her to do anything quite yet. I returned to Ashton and nudged him with my boot again. About that time, the floor fell out from under us and we landed in some sort of mechanical claws. The two pieces closed tight around our hips, " _If you need a break, then you should come see the show._ "

"Ow… Ow… Ow! Would ya mind stoppin' that?" My heart started to pound as the small blue ball's voice came over the intercom. A couple of panels folded away to reveal GLaDOS herself, and a claw that held onto the small, metal core. His blue optic was frantically flickering around, and focused in on us, "Oh… Hello!"

The claws released us and I just barely landed on my feet. Ashton wasn't so lucky and landed on his back, but he seemed to be okay. It was only a few feet of a fall anyways. GLaDOS swerved to look at us, and the black pieces that formed a pseudo-eyelid narrowed the yellow glow, " _Your friend here hasn't shut up since I retrieved him._ "

Ashton was extremely pale as he stared at Her. I knew what it was like to see Her for the first time. Hell, it wasn't much better the second, third, fourth, or now fifth time. She was gigantic in and of herself, but every piece of Her design alluded to the fact that She was in control of the facility. The wires and attachments, the white panels that matched the white of most floors and walls. It was easy to tell just by looking at Her that She was in control here.

I glanced at Wheatley to see a thin, significantly smaller claw proceed to slip into the hole on his side and pluck metal pieces out. Each piece pulled resulted in a different level of 'ow' from Wheatley. I contemplated trying to go for him, but I knew I couldn't. GLaDOS would never let me get that far. There wasn't an exit in this room by any means. And i didn't quite expect her to call a lift either, " _Until your friend is ready to cooperate, you both can sit here and listen to this moron with me."_

I glanced at Ashton but he immediately avoided my gaze. I started to walk, but by the way the claw behind me whirred, I made the decision to stay still. I watched as Wheatley's optic repeatedly snapped shut every time a new piece made it's way out of him. I didn't want to cover my ears - that would show her this bothered me. I instead I decided to make myself busy and moved towards Ashton. I put a hand on his shoulder, "I can't help it okay! I can't help it I'm not used to this place like you are!"

 _ **Like you are**_. I opted to sit down and stare at the floor instead while Wheatley squeaked with each removal. Ashton stood and seemed not to be able to look at any of us. I felt seconds tick on like hours, as if I were the one in Wheatley's position. It hurt so bad. We were all right here in the same room together, but there was no way to escape together. There wasn't an entrance or an exit. There wasn't a button or a laser. This wasn't a puzzle or a test. She didn't expect us to solve anything here. This was a _**punishment**_ for not cooperating. For stepping out of line. This was blackmail to make us continue testing the way she wanted.

Wheatley whined, "Can't you stop now? I-I think this is quite enough-" He was silenced by a grunt he made when a slightly larger piece of metal was pulled out of his side. About that time, I heard a portal gun-fire. Before I had the chance to look at him, Ashton bolted into a portal and emerged through the top of the room. He put one under GLaDos and landed in the other.

The claws didn't catch him in time. He grabbed on hard to her face plate. He snarled and hit his head against her optic before he climbed up onto her mass of wires. He dug his hands deep into the winding black cords. GLaDOS swung around similar to a mechanical bull, but Ashton held on tight. I could only assume he was making progress on her layers of wires the way he was able to hook his arm into her so that throwing him off would mean ripping them out, which I found pretty clever in spur-of-the-moment thinking.

"Look out, luv!" I had been so captivated by his performance that I had forgotten there was a huge claw behind me and that I was absolutely vulnerable. I ducked and slid myself down. I grabbed my portal gun on the way. I placed a portal above Wheatley and ran into the orange one I placed on the wall.

I landed on Wheatley with enough force to knock him loose. With a good kick, he snapped out of the claw's grip completely. As we fell, I grabbed onto him and set a portal beneath us. I flipped myself so that I would land on my feet. About that time there was some rumbling throughout the facility. I assumed it was due to the wires that were being severed from what was basically it's life source. Panels around the room opened and closed like crazy as GLaDOS attempted to knock Ashton off, but he had tangled himself too well in her wires for that, "I _wouldn't do that you know. A shock as powerful as the ones that would come from my wires would likely be enough to kill several elephants._ "

"Then consider me a dinosaur. I bet they took a lot more electricity than that. They probably got hit loads of times with lightning due to how hulking they were. Bet that's not what killed them."

" _Oh, but something did. And when I find out what that is, I'll use that to kill you. Just for fun._ "

I tapped on Wheatley and pointed to Ashton. I mimicked calling to him by putting my hand to the right of my mouth an exaggerating movements with my lips. He slowly caught on, "Uh- Er- Hey Mister! Never quite caught your name… Hey, uh, Che- Ms. C- Uh- She wants you!"

Ashton glanced up and I pointed at a panel that rhythmically closed and opened.. I fired a portal on a wall out beyond it. and one a little to the left of GLaDOS. With a loud tearing sound and a huge array of sparks, Ashton lurched down from GLaDOS and went headfirst into the portal. I changed it's position to be beneath myself and prayed for a floor.

We landed on a catwalk. It seemed Ashton had still turned himself enough to land on his chest and not his head. I shot another portal up the wall so that GLaDOS didn't have direct access to us. I grinned at him and took off as I ran down the catwalk. I heard Ashton get to his feet and follow behind me, "Where are our backpacks?"

I shook my head. She had probably disposed of them. He sighed as we progressed onward. I felt like every panel I passed was a chance to get knocked clean off the sidewalk. I turned a sharp corner into an office layout. I threw doors open as we passed to see if there was anything useful at glance, but there wasn't. We emerged into a hallway connected to what seemed to be higher-ups' offices. Labels like "doctor" and "director" were plastered on signs above those doors. I tried to open them, but they were locked with key codes. I was surprised they weren't protected with fingerprint analyzers and a blood test in a place like this.

I started going again, as the adrenaline carried me rather well. It seemed like Ashton had gotten a second wind from the breakdown back in the chambers, so that certainly was helpful. I wasn't sure what I would do if he got exhausted in our escape. I saw some panels move up ahead and stopped. I threw my arm out to make sure Ashton didn't keep going, "Christ. What do we do, Che?"

I looked down below into the empty chasm. However, there were catwalks along some of the walls. If we dropped ourselves at an angle, we should be able to make it in. If only all walls were portal-conductive. I tapped on Ashton's shoulder and pointed at it, but he didn't look so sure. However, I handed him Wheatley and jumped. I landed on the very edge, and my ribs slammed into the railing. It knocked the breath out of me, but I had enough wits about me to lean forward and climb over the rail.

I looked back at him and motioned towards me, then put my arms up. At first he stared at me like his knowledge he was missing was somewhere on my face, but then he looked down at Wheatley and realized what I meant. I vaguely heard Wheatley start to say something before Ashton launched him through the air at me like an oddly shaped football.

I grabbed on tight to him and nearly toppled backwards with the impact. I set him down on the ground alongside my portal gun and motioned for Ashton to jump. He looked very cautious for a moment, but with a glance down the catwalk where the panels had been moving, he finally pulled himself over the railing and jumped off the edge. I reached my hands out for him with mild success. His feet slipped off the ledge and I had to hold on tight, "Shit- Chell! Help me!"

I nodded hurriedly and started to pull. He wasn't too heavy, but it was still a challenge to pull 120 or so pounds up against the unending bounds of gravity. I got his hands to the railing and had him hold on while I pulled him up by his shoulders. I got him on the edge and helped him climb over onto the safe side. He gave a weary smile to me, "You're crazy."

"Absolutely mad, isn't she?" I picked up my portal gun and used it to lift Wheatley before we started down the hallway. Ashton tapped my shoulder, "I'll carry him. You have better reflexes than me."

So, we traded him over before we continued. Wheatley seemed fine with this change, and seemed to enjoy his ability to move his optic around now that human skin wasn't in the way.. Though he mentioned that he was still in pain from circuits and gears and 'some other parts' being tugged out. I slowly started to pick up the pace as the reality of the situation dawned on me. GLaDOS was probably pissed now, and even though she had a bunch of wires tore out, she probably could mend them. She probably still had a good bit of control over the facility.

"Hey, Che. Any clue where we're going?"

I shook my head as I looked around, then pointed up. He laughed, "Yeah, I know that. I mean… I don't remember seeing a single staircase since we got here."

I put up one finger, "We encountered one?"

I pointed to Wheatley, "Oh, right. There were some stairs when we found him. And some in the chambers, if you count those… But… I'd like to see more of them. Not so much lifts- She controls all of those right?"

Wheatley gave an exaggerated sigh, "She controls _**everything**_.

I nodded and turned the corner. Another catwalk led out over quite a massive distance. I glanced at Ashton and considered not taking the chance, but he nodded and motioned for me to keep going. I doubled my pace as I ran down the catwalk while I notedcatwalks down below in case of a needed escape. He managed to keep up fairly well; he only just a couple of feet behind me over time. I was fairly proud of him, considering how well he was doing. He used to make jokes all the time when he'd go off for lunch about how he was never going to stay in shape with the food he ate. Sometimes I could tell he wasn't. But right now, he was kept up just as well as I needed him to. He was falling into place in this hell much better than I did at first up above.

There was a loud noise to my left. I glanced over and saw a panel above us had come out of the wall. It crashed down onto the catwalk, and the shaking knocked me over. The panel crushed back towards the wall, and that was when I realized that it had caught Ashton between itself and the wall. It was angled so he wouldn't fall, which was my sign that it was fully intentional and not GLaDOS still bugging out from the wires. He slung Wheatley out of the trap, and I just barely caught him with my gun. Then it pressed so flat against the panel under it that I couldn't even see any blood from Ashton. I thought I was going to puke. I hadn't even noticed when I caught Wheatley with the portal gun, "L-Luv? P-Perhaps we should get going-"

I almost said his name. I almost yelled for him. I trembled as I got to my feet. I ran so fast I was nearly jumping paces down the walk. At the last moment, I hopped down to a catwalk below. I saw when I looked up that another panel had been waiting for me, and I had gotten out just in the nick of time. I kept traveling down catwalks. I knew it was the opposite direction I wanted to go, but that was all I could do. I kept going until I saw a lift-tube in one of the hallways. The doors were broken in the open position, and sparks continuously flew from it.

I ran to it and hesitated, because I hated the idea. Then, I jumped into the hole the liftless-tube provided. Wheatley obviously saw an error in this, "Um, luv? Isn't the point to go up?"

There wasn't a way up right now. GLaDOS knew where we were, and would absolutely prevent us from getting to any sort of way up. I figured there was probably a staircase or something at the end of the catwalk she'd cut us off from. I caught myself very quickly in the tube, I could even still see the light from the hallway. I pressed my feet against the wall of the tube on one side while I pressed my shoulders against the wall on the other. I held Wheatley just above me with the Portal gun just below me. I scooted my feet up a few inches, then managed to shove my shoulders up a few inches. I kept this up for quite a while, and the inside of my stomach felt like there was a tight ball inside of it that pulsed. I felt extremely hot from the exertion, and I started to get shaky.

"While I do believe this is a brilliant idea- and it is, I don't just believe it, it is- aren't two humans supposed to do this? Used to be involved in an old test of ours… Anyway- Also- I don't think your body has the energy to keep this up right now- You did just have quite a bit of adrenaline and did experience… _quite_ a tragedy-"

 _Ashton_. I guessed that the look I gave Wheatley conveyed the message I wanted, which was 'shut up'. He didn't shut up entirely- I didn't think he's fully capable of that, he seemed to have an unending need to fill the silence - but he did change topics, so it was at least a little more tolerable as I passed the door to my right, "Right… um… Like I've been trying to tell you - Um… I… I know that what I did… back there… Well, not just now or anything but… A _while_ back. Before I went to space and you went to the surface- How was that by the way- Well anyway. I know it was wrong… And I-"

My feet slipped and we crashed down. I held the grip on Wheatley tight as he yelled an exaggerated 'Ahhh!" that he must not've thought of the first time. I was too exhausted to catch myself again. We were headed down to wherever this lift ended, and I couldn't stop us. That was my original idea, but after I had had the idea to get us up some, this didn't feel so good.

However, the air that rushed past us felt kind of nice. It smelt foul, but at least it cooled me off after the sweat that had worked up. I knocked Wheatley on his side a little with my free hand to get him to shut up, and tightened my grip on my portal gun - and in extention, him - as I fell. I wondered if this would really go all the way down to the same older-Aperture I had seen when Wheatley had sent me and potato-GLaDOS down here - accidentally - in a fit of rage.

I realized I had been glaring at Wheatley, so I averted my gaze, "What is it?"

I didn't grant a response and instead glanced down to see if there was anything to see yet. Then I looked at him, and I could tell by the way his optic looked down and his eyelids were squint a little bit that he had figured it out, "This is what it was like, wasn' it? Falling down a huge dark hole… Not knowing where you're going, or if it'll be too far for you to make it?"

I thought about not responding to spare his feelings, but by time I had that thought I had already honestly nodded. He sighed, "Oh… I… I'm sorry. That… That I didn't trust you when you told me we shared the work… and that you didn't believe what She had said."

 _I shook my head frantically, almost pleadingly, as I watched my huge friend grow angrier and angrier. GLaDOS taunted him and ran on and on with it; he had snapped. I tried to convince him she was lied- I couldn't have made it to here without him. I didn't know the things he did. Sure, he got a lot of stuff wrong. But he still got more right than I could've guessed. He got me to that portal gun, and to what should've been our escape had he not messed it up-_

 _But we all make mistakes right? I mean, I locked myself in a test chamber by accident once and could only get out by GLaDOS fixing it-_

"Che- Chell? Is that another thing he called you?" I glanced to Wheatley. I hadn't heard a thing he said, but I could recall him rambling. He looked at me and did a motion similar to a nod, "Ah, you didn't hear me, did you?"

I shook my head and looked around. Upon looking down, I could see a tiny light towards the bottom. We crashed through a few planks that were here - I guessed to stop the lift from coming down too far- and the light grew larger and larger. Soon, we were cast out into open air. The smell nearly choked me, and now I knew why the shaft had smelt so bad. However, that wasn't my biggest problem. The ground was rapidly raising closer, and I had no clue how far we fell. I put my feet directly down and tried to keep my knees a little bent.

When I woke up, my muscles were aching. The ground beneath me was rough, and something had cut my cheek. I slowly sat up against the will of the pain and glanced around. There were broken down rooms all around me. I stood up and glanced around for a portal surface. I spotted one up above and aimed-

My portal gun was gone. I looked around desperately, but expected to see it in bits somewhere around me. I could see a faint blue glow a few feet away, the source hidden by debris between me and it. As I walked to it, I realized Wheatley was missing as well and picked up the pace. Once I made it over, I located the gun and put it back on my arm. The only damaged seemed to be some scratches in the paint and a desperate need for a cleaning. I fired into the air just to be sure the trigger worked, then progressed in search of Wheatley.

Turns out, he wasn't that far away. The problem was, he was face-down in some water about halfway up his body. I nearly screamed and ran to him. I lifted him up and hI shook him hard, both in an attempt to wake him and in an attempt to shake the water out. However, his optic didn't open. I bit down hard on my lip to avoid screaming or sobbing. I held him close to me and sat down just outside the water as I I trembled. I shook him again, but he didn't respond. I tapped on him, tried to pry his 'eyelids' open, but he didn't respond. I glanced around cautiously, then leaned close to him, "Wheatley?"

However, my whisper didn't reach the bot. I quickly got to my feet, and shot a portal up to the surface I saw before, then one on the wall next to me. I then picked him up with the gun and ran through the portals onto a catwalk. I bolted into the offices and looked around desperately, but there was nothing of any use to me. Not even so much as a screwdriver, the office only had papers and pens scattered all over the place with a couple of chairs, one overturned. I exited the offices the way I came, took Wheatley into my other arm, then shot a portal across the massive room to another surface just barely within my range.

I bolted through my previous portal and into another room of desks and chairs. It resembled the other one almost exactly, it even had a similarly overturned chair. However, this one included a door to another hallway. I headed into another set of offices, but another hallway. It felt similar to the mazes upstairs, and as I headed through them I wondered if they matched up.

I stopped a brief moment to glance at a poster. It was some sort of message about being okay with your android bosses. I wondered just how long robots had been a part of Aperture Science. Was this the base floor? How much had it changed since the initial build? None of that mattered right now.

I passed so many doors that I started to worry my one chance at help was far behind me. I paused when I passed a door and reread the sign which read 'assembly line.' I tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. I set Wheatley and the portal gun down - and boy did water still soak the carpet - and slammed my shoulder into the door. However, this did as much good as throwing a pen at it. I ran back and found an unlocked office. I searched for something that would help.

I picked up a huge paperweight that looked like a globe and rushed back to the door. I held the paperweight tightly by the handle of the 'globe.' I swung my hand hard and let the globe hit it. No breakthroughs, but I made a small dent. After a good dozen or so swings like that, I was overwhelmed by how slowly progress was going. I dropped the paperweight on my foot at one point, but the long fall boots took a lot of the impact thankfully.

I glanced over at Wheatley's robotic carcass and felt my stomach churn. I couldn't save Ashton. I have to save Wheatley. As I made this realization, I started to feel weaker. I ended up on my knees, and as I looked at Wheatley, my vision started to become blurry.

 _I_ _ **will**_ _save you._


	3. 3 - Misapprehension

**_Author's Note: Hey everyone! This chapter was one of the hardest things I think I've written before, for reasons I probably shouldn't explain because it might spoil you if you think too much about it. But it definitely required some skills to be refined. It also required me to sort of "rip apart" my writing. There was actually an alternative version of this chapter involving a new character I scrapped because the scenario itself felt cheesy, too convenient, and sort of cliche. Too bad I was almost 2,000 words (not counting what I did keep in) into it before I realized that. But that character doesn't fit in anywhere else, so I guess I'm kind of mourning that because I really liked him._**

 ** _Anyways I'll stop rambling and let you read now._**

* * *

 _My head was pounding, making the ringing in my ears fluctuate. The dim lighting didn't reveal much to me quite yet as my eyes tried to adjust. It was disgusting how much gunk I had to rub out of my eyes and lashes. There was a odd sound coming from my left, which sounded sort of like knocking. As I made my way there, I fumbled quite a bit. So much that I face planted, to be in fact. My legs felt awkward, like they didn't remember how to do their job._

 _"Hello! Anyone in there?" As I struggled to get up - and I do mean struggled, I ended up completely ripping the sheets off the bed in one of many attempts to pull myself up - a voice was calling at me. It asked me again and again to open the door._

" _Ah…! Oh my god!" A blue bumbling ball with a bright blue light entered my room as he rambled. He made some sort of comment about my appearance but I was more concerned about him asking how I was and deciding I was fine. He said something about having time to recover, and I wasn't sure what from. He panicked when an announcer informed me about an emergency evacuation, and quickly tried to console me even though I didn't have time to react. Then, he retreated into the ceiling._

 _The entire room started to move, and I was pretty sure it wasn't me trying not to fall this time. However, I did fall from all the movement. I caught myself with my hands, which resulted in my wrist hurting so bad that I hit my head on the floor when I moved my hands to grab it. He said something, but my ears were too busy ringing for me to hear him. When he came down, I caught that he said I'd been 'under' suspension for a long time, and that I might have some brain damage._

 _He wanted me to tell him I understood. However, with how vaguely he spoke, I didn't. I tried to be a smart-ass and jumped instead of speaking, and that was the first time I learned his optic was brighter than he was. So he asked me to say apple, and something inside of me said not to speak. A glance of a bright white room of many layers flashed through my head, and in the moment I pondered it, he seemed a little more desperate for me to speak._

 _I had to play dumb. Something somewhere was telling me I couldn't speak, and I had as much reason to trust it as I did him. He was expecting something, and if I didn't at least show I knew this he may give up on me. In a state of panic, I decided to jump as a response again. He quickly retreated into the ceiling, seeming to dismiss this until later. I was thrown onto the bed as the room not only began to move again, but also started to crumble at the walls. I rolled off of the bed onto the floor and pulled myself into the closet._

 _As he was talking about his situation, which apparently was pretty bad, he said something about test subjects. Those two works poked at my brain, and a couple of memories popped up. Waking up in a cell of sorts, a blur of bright orange, something I was holding. The words "test subject" had applied to me at some point. I snapped back to the current moment and watched as he caused a domino effect with some rooms that I could only assume were like mine. I watched as an entire stack fell because it'd been bumped by another at the bottom._

 _The room felt like it was going to break apart. I was doubting his ability to steer considering he knocked us into everything he physically could. What he thought was a docking station was a wall informing onlookers that could read that there was a docking station down below. He did what he called a 'manual' override, which consisted of him bashing our room into the wall until it broke enough to let us through._

 _When we finally stopped, he told me to go retrieve something. A gun that makes holes, but not bullet holes. Somehow, this concept was vaguely familiar just out of the reaches of my memory at the time. When I headed in the direction he instructed me, the glass I walked on fell through and I gained a couple of cuts. Turns out the jumpsuit was tougher than I thought, though. The room I had landed in reminded me of the one I remembered a few minutes ago, where that orange blur had been. I turns out it was here too. An orange portal opened in front of me and I knew what would happen when I went through it as flashes went through my mind of me doing all kinds of things with the portals._

 _Not much of note happened._

 _The robot returned, startling me at first. He talked about finding where the portal gun should be but told me it was missing. As I approached it's empty stand, I noticed the floor felt a little funny. By time I had processed it, the floor broke beneath me. I landed below in what at first felt like a shallow river. Upon getting up, I could see that there was a lot of debris down here. The robot called down to me as I progressed, but I didn't bother jumping for someone who could see me. Up ahead, there was something fizzling._

 _I recognized it as a portal gun. That's what had been on my arm in those memories. This one had lest dimensions on the top and was clearly roughed up a bit. I also noticed it could only shoot blue portals. However, my attention faded from the gun very quickly to the paintings around the room. The first one i noticed was the one that gave me the creeps, which was what looked like a painted mural of myself. Above me depicted what looked like the moon phases. There were a couple of quite distressed looking people, and a familiar cube._

 _There was one of a large, wiry robot offering what looked like a piece of cake to who I could only assume was me. To the right, there was a picture the same robot depicted with orbs on it with brightly colored circles that looked like eyes. I could see the real thing in my mind, and hear the dull voice as it tried to talk me down into a calm state. It was angry with me._

 _ **GLaDOS.**_

 _But hadn't I escaped? How did i end up back here?_

* * *

I had that sort of pins-and-needles feeling from cut off circulation. From my right knee down and from my my right hand to about midway up my forearm shared this feeling. As I lifted my head and squinted in the somewhat dim light, I saw that I had fallen asleep in an unideal position, which likely was the cause of the feeling. I glanced around as I got my bearings and recalled my last memories.

 _ **Ashton. Wheatley.**_

As I tried to crawl to Wheatley a little too fast, I ended up face planting on the carpet. I pushed myself back up and continued to head towards him. I picked him up and shook him, but the only noise I got back was rattling and a couple of patters as water hit the carpet.. I frowned and sat him back on the ground as I worked blood flow back into my right leg. I got back onto my feet soon, and picked up the globe from before. I could tell by the grooves pressed into my forehead that my head had been resting on it for at least a little bit, and I hoped I had set it there unknowingly and that I hadn't smashed my head on it.

I started smashing the paperweight into the door again, but I was gaining similarly unproductive dents as the ones I got before. It felt safe to assume this wasn't because I was still groggy from the sleep. I finally stopped and stared at the sporadically spread out dents in the door. I needed to keep calm and be more precise. I remembered Ashton smashing the lock on the shed with his wrench, and it almost winded me to think of Ashton before I brought him down here. I felt the pangs of guilt start to hit me, and that's when I started slamming the paperweight into the lock. As long as I kept working, I didn't have time to worry and let it it set in.

My arms were starting to get sore and tired like this. I had to work harder to will them to slam into the lock. I wanted to hit myself in the head with that paperweight for wasting energy on all the parts of the door except the important one. Ashton would've laughed at me and told me to 'try somewhere else' until I got it. We probably would've played hot and cold with the damn thing.

The door opened with a loud rattle. The entire locking mechanism had crushed out of place, and it didn't look like that door would be holding shut on it's own anymore. I didn't care, it wasn't like anyone had used it in the past few decades. I wasted no time grabbing Wheatley and my portal gun, then proceeded into the assembly room. I reminded myself that there was no guarantee that anything was going to happen in here. It was possible the room had been dismantled at a discontinuation or that I would need to have better knowledge of the cores to fix him. It was possible the part that held his personalities was fried. The odds were stacked against me, but they always had been. I had to try.

I set him on a table and took a look around. There was a conveyor belt, something similar to a large set of lockers, a few counters, one area with a bunch of switches, levers, and buttons, and a ton of boxes. I began ripping boxes open; I almost gave myself a heart attack. The first thing I pulled out was an entire arm without the hand, and I dropped it so quickly that I almost knocked the box over. It took me a moment to realize this was the _android_ assembly room. I realized that the boxes had labels on them, in some sort of code. I noticed that all the ones marked "A15" had uncolored arms in them, while "A17" had arms that matched lighter tones of skin. "A16" had an albino skin tone, to be in fact. And from there, it got darker. There were about ten different shades of skin tones, which applied to all parts of the body.

I wasn't kidding when I say there were a lot of boxes.

I soon gave up on finding anything I could use for Wheatley in there. Unless adding arms to his sides was suddenly going to reverse water damage, I needed to start looking elsewhere in the room. I found a computer with a password on it, which made it nearly useless to me. However, there was an unlocked 'guest' mode. I searched eagerly through the computer, but only found access to a non-active internet browser and some sort of game.

Then I found a singular video file. My curiosity peaked, and I played it. It couldn't hurt.

"Have you ever looked at your daughter's boyfriend and thought 'Man, they don't make them like they used to.'" The voice was familiar, and it only took a minute to call it from my memory. Cave Johnson, the CEO of the company Aperture Science. He died a long time ago due to an illness caused by the space rocks he grounded up to make into a gel. Also the man who put Caroline's being onto a disk and made her into the monster I knew as GLaDOS. A semi-realistic looking family with a boy who seemed to fit the 'nerdy' criteria filled the screen, with an overlay of a big red X. "Have you ever looked at him and said 'I don't want him with my precious angel?'" Next was the same girl with a boy who was your stereotypical punk with piercings, long black hair an undercut, the whole nine yards. "Well, Aperture Science has the new technology you've been looking for to have better control over those varmints who are trying to get with your little angel! I present to you, the "A+ AI Guy"... name pending." There was a 360 shot of a seemingly normal boy with blonde hair and green eyes, which then crossfaded into some sort of diagram of a robot. "Design your girl's boyfriend to be whoever you want, hook 'em up, no worries! Don't have to worry about grandkids, or breakups. Perfect sola- Solu- Ah, damn it."

The video file was labeled 'test 1'. I assumed it was a prototype advertisement of some sort. The video had cut out after the diagram shot, so I guessed whoever was working on it had given up just as Cave Johnson had on that vocal take. I could imagine him getting angry and demanding the reschedule the recording for later. I looked around them room at the conveyor belt and tried to imagine androids like the one that had been on the screen being manufactured. I had a sort of suspicion that the 'exterior' was a real human put in the shot, but no doubt Aperture Science had funded this project. They had all the parts to prove it.

I started shuffling through the papers. One read that the project was canceled due to low reception and questioning from the government. Apparently, this project had taken out quite the pretty penny from Aperture's pocket, then tossed it away into a wasteland to never be found. Most people apparently didn't want their daughter dating a robot, it seemed. I wondered to myself if Cave Johnson had made this in anticipation of having a daughter one day.

More papers told me the complaints that people had. The fact that they couldn't reproduce was actually a huge problem to the consumers, apparently. Many fathers and mothers complained that they would want grandchildren one day, and that they should have control over when that happens as well. There notes stating to check 'File 32'. However, there was nothing that pertained to saving Wheatley in the file, so I deemed it unimportant.

I decided to check the lockers. Sure enough, inside was a huge array of android-men or boys, depending on how far left or right you were. Once I'd confirmed this, I returned to the papers. I looked for any sort of acknowledgement as to how the AI part of the androids worked. The best I found was a diagram showing some sort of 'personality chip' being inserted into the area where the head turns into the neck.

I glanced over at Wheatley. Surely his technology was too advanced?

I finally decided I had to dismantle him. I located a toolkit and started to unscrew things, cringing as I took the faceplate off my friend. This left behind the 'eyelids', so he still looked out cold. However the slid open and shut pretty easily, and I got a pretty chilling look of what it looks like when there's no power behind a core's optic. I tried not to think about it as I pulled him apart piece by piece, looking at each for some sort of label or similarity to the diagram.

There was a small blue chip similar to the SD cards I found in the camera I bought from my co-worker Reid a few months ago. The main difference is it was more rectangular, and probably double the size. I looked it over, but all I could find was the label 'IDS9987" and a miniscule Aperture Science logo. I held it gingerly in my hand and glanced at the diagram I had. I couldn't determine if it was the 'personality chip' they were talking about, but it certainly was the closest thing I'd found so far. So, I made my way to the lockers and picked an android at random. I wasn't too concerned with how he looked right now. After a few minutes of trying to make the thing budge, I realized there were a few places that it was locked into place. I went over to the switches to the right of the lovers and tried to count.

It seemed the switches matched up with the twenty lockers. However, there were three extra switches. I didn't want to find out what they did, so I carefully chose the switch of the android. Even if it wasn't that android, it'd be the one three before it. I didn't care which it was, as long as it came loose. I flipped the switch, and I could heard some loud mechanisms chug to life. I returned to the android and saw that the latches were disconnected now as hoped. It was actually fairly light in comparison to before, though I still couldn't lift it. I scooted it out until I could get to it's neck.

I reached up and gingerly touched the back of it's neck. Chestnut-like brown, curly hair covered the slot in the back on it's way down past his shoulders. The length made it a little more difficult to wrangle out of the way, but I eventually got to the slot. I very slowly eased in the chip. It felt about the right size, there was no wiggle room, which reassured me of my choice. It finally clicked into place. I stood there a long moment, watching the thing for any signs of life. I let it's hair fall back into place the best it could, and continued to wait. I put my ear to it's back, but I didn't hear anything happening inside.

A wave of both frustration and some sort of grief washed over me like a ton of arrowheads. I fell back with a loud sigh - there sure as hell wasn't anyone there to hear me - and laid on the chilly, tiled floor. The fall kicked up some dust, but I didn't mind coughing. What I minded was that there was no seemingly British voice piping up about some ludicrous idea to get out of this damn facility. I glanced at the robot and let the realization that I was absolutely alone set in.

I realized then that maybe my process wasn't over yet. I hopped up and ran to the area with all of the levers and switches and started looking for anything labelled something like "activate" or "startup." I found a paper that told where the ID number for the androids were, so I checked. It was supposed to be behind his left ear. Upon checking, I found out that this particular android was "AD075598B." I looked for any switch that indicated that ID or more likely the pod which he had been in, but there was nothing.

I started looking through the papers for any indication as to how to activate it, but it seemed like someone had walked out with it on their lunch break and never returned. While I tried not to figure the realistic probability of that happening in a place like Aperture where people seemingly got fired abruptly left and right, I started swiping unrelated papers onto the floor so I wouldn't waste time accidentally rereading them again.

As I read, I had to accept another fact. GLaDOS was smarter than Wheatley. She more likely than not knew I was down here. She knew me well enough to know I would probably find my way back up. She wasn't one to wait around for danger to come to her. She had no control of the lower, old parts of the facility to my knowledge, or at least I assumed since Wheatley didn't do anything. Though, he could've not known how to. It could've been something he had to connect to outside of his normal connections to the facility. Something that would overload the chassis if always connected. However, either way, She would find a way to get me. I had to be quicker than her. She didn't even know about Wheatley's state, and She knew I was fast. I had to start moving, I was hardly a couple of minutes away from where I initially came down. Not to mention I was in a room I couldn't lock to try to buy time. I swiped the remaining papers off the counter and slowly made my way back to grab my portal gun.

I glanced at Wheatley's dismantled body and took a final glance for anything similar to the chip in the diagram from before. Upon confirming there was nothing else of similar size, I gathered all the miscellaneous pieces and put them in his shell. There was nothing more I could do for him now. I slipped my hand around the trigger for my portal gun and headed towards the door.

I took a finally glance back at the motionless android. The light glared off of it's glasses and made me feel like it was as cold as the disappointment it delivered. I finally left the room and didn't bother closing the broken door behind me. I had the sense I was forgetting something I brought in. I knew what it was, and it was now no more worth going back for than the globe paperweight discarded a few feet away.

Or at least that's what I was trying to convince myself.

Now that I knew I couldn't save Wheatley, the feeling of loneliness really set in. There was something about going from a group of three to a single person so abruptly that made silence really painful. I didn't usually mind silence, and often preferred it. But right now, it left too much time to think and feel. I walked through the halls, but none of them seemed to lead to anywhere of use. I figured I needed to find another point where I could exit into the area where test subjects typically stayed. I considered retrieving that paperweight and smashing one of the viewing windows open, but I didn't want to trek all the way back there, then all the way back here.

My portal gun felt obscenely light right now. Holding something didn't really add weight, but it did add a sort of pressure. I allowed myself another loud sigh and kicked a wadded up piece of paper to the side. These sorts of areas always seemed strange to me. It was always like everyone was living their normal lives up until the very moment these spaces became empty, like no one had been prepared to leave. Knowing Aperture, many of them had died without warning, but I wasn't convinced every single one of them did.

It didn't really matter now,

"Hey, Che!" I turned around to see a field of white panels. I felt my heart pound as they all started to race together. I ran for Ashton as my mind raced to think of a way out. However, he stood still and watched me progress. I knew I was going to punch him for not moving if I made it to him in time. As the panels became too close together to even run with my torso straight, he sat down. I finally hit my knees as the panels got too close. My nails were digging into my palms as I waited for the panel above me to crush me.

But it didn't.

When I looked around, I was a ways back in the hallway. There weren't any panels, nothing was moving besides my heaving chest. Ashton wasn't here. I let my sore palms rest against the floor and hold me up with my shaky elbows as I recovered from the adrenaline rush. I brought myself up to sit on my knees and wiped the cold sweat on my forehead onto the back of my hand. I got myself to my feet soon after that, and started heading the way I'd just ran from.

I was irritated that I'd gotten back as far as I did. That was all the more space I had to go through. I tried to avert my mind from the image of Ashton standing there, watching me. Though, that only progressed in the image of him being crushed into the panel up above, so I regretted that. I could see Wheatley in the back of my mind, lying in shambles as I left the assembly room. As I progressed down the hall, I decided I needed to think of something to focus on. Something to avert my mind from them.

I finally got to a door that lead onto a lift. Upon sending it down, I ended up on a catwalk. Not much changed between this Aperture and the Aperture above, it seemed. I found myself in a room of some sort of lever puzzle. However, it was already complete, and I got to continue. The next one was a similarly simple test, with what looked like buttons that lit up. However, it was complete too. It seemed whoever was in charge of the tests didn't reset them before they went wherever they went next. I progressed through about three more straight-forward puzzles that were complete before I found anything that was of interest.

I emerged into a little room. There were a couple of benches and chairs, as well as a small magazine rack. There was a sign that read "Congratulations on passing the Initial IQ Testing Course!" over an Aperture Science Innovators logo. The room had a particularly stale feeling to it. There were magazines sitting open to various pages, there was still garbage in the trash cans, and at the reception desk there was a paper with an incomplete signature.

What had happened to all of these people?

I decided not to linger and moved on. There was a rather large room that seemed to involve the familiar gels. There were a dozen or so pillars, and several buttons of both the cube-held and the one-press variety. I noticed that one of the pillars had seemingly fallen apart at some point, and I wondered if that was before or after all the people stopped in the middle of what they were doing and disappeared without a trace. This test, however, was like the rest. It was nothing complicated, mostly just bouncing on the gel to get to a button and press it, and catching the cube it released, then getting it onto a button before the ticking timer finished. There were processes similar to this with variants, but they were mostly the same. Once I had all eight cubes on buttons, the door at the end of the chamber opened.

Progressing through the chamber led me to the next. However, seemed to be rotated in some way. There was a sign on the way in that said, "Replicate it." I realized then that the gels were in dispensers above and not yet on the ground, and that I'd need to copy the last room. A screen behind a wall of glass told me that I had six minutes to work. Instead of trying to visually copy it, I decided to "solve" the puzzle. I was pretty sure that as long as I got the cubes on the buttons, I would progress. Maybe back when test subjects were being watched here, their way out would be denied by the onlookers if the room didn't replicate the last.

Once I exited that room, I was met by another waiting room with another sign informing me I'd passed the secondary IQ test. The chairs and benches all looked pretty dirty, and I was pretty sure one bench was caked in age-old dried mud. So, I opted to rest a moment in the chair at the desk to breath. The air wasn't recycled down here, and there was no energy-booster added to it. I felt like my ability to progress in a place like this was being stripped from me piece by piece.

I didn't have many pieces left.

Several more testing chambers proceeded that one, along with another waiting room. However, the next chamber I emerged into seemed to be broken down. Pieces of the ceiling had fallen in, there were broken pieces of the partially charred walls lying across the floor, and the gel dispensers were both broken open and completely dry. It seemed that they'd been turned off, since I was sure that they weren't out considering they connected to the same place as the other, functional ones did. At least, I assumed they did.

However, this still left the problem that the door was shut without a way to open it. Honestly, this room looked like it had been repurposed for bomb-testing, and you don't blow anything up with the door open. That being said, I didn't know what had happened to this room or if it was going to happen again or not by machine. Therefore, I made my way to the door and tried to see if it happened to be lose. I didn't, as I figured. My only reasoning for thinking so was the possible bomb-testing theory leading to the door being knocked loose.

I looked around the room for any sort of alternative exit, or entrance for the scientists. However, there was neither. As I walked around, I realized there were certain tiles of the floor that were loose. They were much too large for me to lift, but I kept in mind the fact that they may not be too sturdy for me to go plummeting through to whatever was below. I kept my steps careful as I examined the room for any way out.

My plan was the holes in the wall. If I could angle myself in a way that I could see any sort of portal-conductive surface, I could get over there using any uncharred panel in here. However, the holes didn't seem to align with any white panels. I kept myself calm as I walked, remembering to be careful for any loose tiles.

Finally, I could see the glimpse of what looked like a white panel. It was on the ceiling in the next room over, but as long as I could to it that's all I needed. I shot a portal and felt relieved when I saw the flash of blue. I made my way over there, Once I'd landed, I realized that this hadn't lead to the next room. It instead lead to the room above it. Which was fine, I didn't mind making my way up a little. It was a small pod of a room with a couple of buttons to do things like release the gels. Seeing as they weren't pressed down and there was a label saying "Do Not Activate; Rooms Need Repair." I decided against pressing them.

There was a stairwell of sorts that headed up and down. I didn't want to go any farther down by any means, so I chose to go up. It was almost odd, seeing as far up as the stairwell went. It was such a straightforward path, something extremely rare to Aperture Science. It must've been nice navigating in the older Aperture sectors with maps and grids. You could always trust that your office would be in the same place you left last night, and you knew that Chamber 3 would be in the same place when you finish your lunch that it was in when you started it. It almost made me uneasy to see such a clear-cut path. It felt like a trap.

On the way up, a few doors were propped open. However, each one looked like it lead to offices or chambers rather than anything of interest, so I decided to take the easy path. I progressed up seven or eight floors before I took a break. I sat down on the topmost step of the flight I just climbed and attempted to catch my breath. I would've killed for the backpacks right about then, because a bottle of water and one of those granola bars sounded as good as a five-course meal. I rested my head against the rail and glanced downward. I hadn't noticed that I started only a few floors from the bottom. Upon looking up, I could tell I was only about a fourth of the way there.

" _I knew you'd take a break eventually_ ," I jumped so badly when it sounded that I ended up soaring down the flight of stairs. I mostly was in the air, but I rolled down the last few enough to bruise a strip of my back and to give myself a pretty nasty headache. My eyes couldn't quite focus at where I came from, but there was nothing there. I didn't expect there to be. However, the intercom stayed silent. Nothing moved. After a few long moments of waiting, I realized that Her voice was as real in that moment as that turret had been when I shoved Ashton into the chair.

I decided to start moving again.

 _"Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?" My psychologist nodded with her typical plastered on smile, "What does that mean?"_

 _"Well, when somebody experiences a situation to the degree of something like war, or an abusive relationship. Sometimes, they have spells where they can't get a certain thing out of their head. They'll relive a memory or be stuck in the emotion of it. Sometimes it'll continue in their head the way it happened, or it'll change based on what the person thinks should've happened or an alternative way it could've gone."_

 _I sipped anxiously on my water as she talked. I had a habit of drinking until I got sick to avoid talking, so I forced myself to set my water bottle down. I gave her a nod to cue her to continue talking, "Very rarely, there are cases that disconnect from reality and think they're back in that horrible situation, or that it's followed them somehow. Like that second day you came and you later on explained to me that when you jumped, you were dodging a bullet."_

 _Weeks later, to be exact. I hadn't wanted to tell her that in fear she'd deem me unfit to function around other humans or something. Once I had told her, she'd started asking me much more invasive questions. I didn't like it, but I did my best to answer them. Then, we came to this conversation._

 _"It's nothing to be too concerned with. I mean, after all, you've been living with it. There's nothing new here, just a name for the phenomenon is all. It's not an easy thing to live with, but you seem to be coping well. If you ever have those attacks, I want you to take one of these pills. It's similar to your anxiety medication, but it's a quicker acting, lesser strength, you see."_

 _She continued to ramble on about my medications and my symptoms. I had no reason to doubt her, so I decided I would listen to her. She was right in saying that it would stop the process of many of those attacks happening one right after another because it calmed me down. However, I didn't like the way the pills made me feel. It was almost like I was being sedated. So, I very rarely took them. I usually tried to cope with them unless someone else was going to be around. Matty seemed a lot more cautious when I had to turn in my new medication form that said I may have to leave work if I had to take the medication, but she told me not to worry._

I hadn't thought to bring those pills with me. These attacks were emerging from the blockade at full force, and I worried that they'd result in my fatality. However, if I took those pills, I'd like be unable to function the way I needed to. So I tried to not be too hard on myself for forgetting them. I did, however, wish I remembered my nerve medicine so my mind wouldn't race like this.

It took a while, especially with my freshly bruised spine, but I did reach the top of the staircase. I felt rather worn down, but I knew better than to take a break longer than a couple of minutes. I checked through the halls. It seemed this was where the higher-ups were. Probably because it was closer to the surface, meaning in an emergency they'd be out first. However, I had to wonder how they got out. Surely they didn't have lifts all the way to the surface directly from here. Besides, in a fire they'd be no help. I finally took a break and sat down in the hallway, letting myself call for more energy from my tired body. It wasn't long before I dragged myself into one of the offices.

I stared at a case of water for a long time. Who knew how many years they were sitting there. Forty? Fifty? A hundred? Who knew, it could've been even longer. But I could recall my crewmembers at Matty's cafe telling me water didn't go bad. So I decided it was time to take my chances and I ripped open the case of water.

I cracked open the first bottle my hand landed on and started chugging. It tasted foul, but I trusted what I'd been told. Besides, if I didn't drink something soon, I was going to die of thirst. I wasn't sure how long I'd been out of the reenergizing, all purpose air from the active layers of Aperture, but I knew a human could only go twenty-four hours without water. They would also become weak from dehydration way before that.

I downed water until I felt nauseous. While I let my stomach settle, I searched around the office. I knew I wouldn't find any food that was still good, but I was hoping for something easy enough to carry the water bottles in without getting in the way. However, all I found was a suitcase, and I couldn't imagine lugging the heavy thing around for long.

I decided to check the other offices, but was met with similar circumstances. I finally found a woman's purse and dumped the contents out. As much as I would've loved to figure out her birthday with some sort of ID so that I could start to get an idea as to how old this place and that water was, I needed to keep moving. I went back to the room and stuffed as many water bottles in as I could, and adjusted the strap to be long enough to go from one shoulder to the opposite hip, that way it wouldn't slip down my arm so much. I zipped it shut and decided it was time to progress.

I passed several offices. However, upon passing one, I caught a glimpse of a figure sitting there. I threw myself onto the ground, expecting my eyes to have been tricking me and there secretly being some sort of danger to it, however when I looked up I could see it was in fact a motionless person. Their facial features were ever-so-slightly odd and seemed to shine in the light a little. After a moment or two of staring, I realized it was an android.

It looked like it hadn't moved in years with the way it was covered in dust. I walked into the office and began examining the android man. It certainly looked older- in both model and design- than the one I had tried to port Wheatley into. I could see where the personality chip slipped in, and tried to pull it out to get a look at it. However, it was really snuggly fit in.

I located some tweezers in the desk drawer - I wondered if this android was filling in for someone who would have a reason to own these - and managed to coax it out with those. Upon looking at it, I could see it was very similar to the chip I had found inside Wheatley's core. However, it was yellow and had a different code I didn't bother remembering. I could see why the android wasn't working anymore. His chip was melted at the end. I wondered if that was because the old model's chips fit too snuggly, or if there was some other malfunction this bot had been fated for.

I wondered how long he'd been inanimate. The dust told me a long time, but that was a terribly large variable. With no way to find out, I decided it was time to get back to moving. I set the chip down on the desk and headed back into the hallway. The door's creaking as I shut it was loud as a bomb in all of the silence here. I moved at as quick of a walk as I could manage, which was a little slower than usual with my back still aching. When I heard turrets activate, I kept my pace against my will to sprint.

 _They're not real, Chell._

I wanted to run. My mind told me to dive to the floor or to enter an office. I had to fight to keep grounded in the real world. I couldn't forget what I was doing and get messed up by delusions. I needed to find another staircase. There had to be one. Somehow, all of the people were supposed to be able to get out.

Or at least the higher-ups were.

Something nearly nicked my nose on the way across the hallway in front of me. As I fell back, I felt reality start to slip. I heard dozens of gunshots, and I crawled along the hallway floor into an open office. Once I confirmed it was turretless, I shut the door behind me. My heart was pounding so hard that my breath couldn't catch up, and the gunshots didn't stop for a good minute or two. When they did, I decided not to move.

 _Turrets don't have that much ammo. Turrets don't fire for that long without seeing a target. They aren't real, Chell._

The words felt empty and foreign in my mind, but I repeated them several times anyways. Something had to click. It felt like being caught in a nightmare and knowing it, but not being able to get wake yourself up. I pulled at my hair and pressed my back against the wall, trying to do anything to distract my mind.

I coaxed myself up onto my feet and decided to walk around the room for a couple of minutes. I glanced around the cookie-cutter office; it wasn't much different than the one the android had been in. I sat at the desk and started looking through the drawers. I imagined being an employee for a place like Aperture Science, and I couldn't imagine it being nice. You really had to stay in line, or else you got the boot. Your office was god knows how many miles underground and you had to work on projects that went against mosts' morals- yours too even. Then again, it had to be better than being a test subject. As a test subject, your life meant nothing to the scientists. You were simply another tally for the data they were collecting. You were to risk your life for the sake of science you both knew next to nothing about and also didn't care about.

At the bottom of a drawer, below some candy bars coated in mold and smelt like all of the test subjects that had worked in the day they were good puked on them, was a map. I scraped the crud off it with a nearby ruler, and I could almost read it. I grabbed a pen and marked where I came up from, then mapped out what way I had gone. According to the map, I needed to go back to an intersecting hallway and follow it, then turn into another, and then I'd find the staircase that headed upwards another forty-two floors.

I slipped the map into the bag with the water and chugged another bottle. I tossed it aside as I left the office and started to follow the path laid out for me by the map. I wondered how many floors were between this one and the Aperture I was semi-familiar with, or even how this Aperture connected to the old parts of Aperture I trekked though with GLaDOS.

A chill crept down my spine as I remembered working alongside her. I hated listening to what She said, but She turned out to be serious about helping me for the sake of regaining control of Her facility. She seemed genuinely okay with me leaving four years ago, but I'd made the mistake of coming back. She almost seemed to have completely reverted back to Her the state She was in when I met Her. She didn't worry about me screwing up Her facility or what I wanted to do. She wanted me to test, and that was all She cared about.

I stumbled as the image of Ashton being swiped off the catwalk forced itself into my mind. I put a hand on the wall to steady myself and attempted to calm my breaths. I kept my eyes shut, willing the memory away. I couldn't be upset right now. I'd be irrational, and I'd lose my grip on reality again. I had to be sure I made progress towards those stairs without any more stops. I could feel the pressure knotting around me, reminding me that GLaDOS could be just a step behind or in front of me, trying or preparing to catch me.

I started walking again. I didn't have time to think like this.

There wasn't much more to go. I only had the last stretch of the hallway before I could enter the staircase and head upwards. However, I had no clue what was coming after that. With how far I fell, there could be a few hundred flights between me and the floor that lift had been on. I knew that was my only option to lose GLaDOS at the time, but I was regretting it more and more. She was just going to find me the moment I got back, and falling down here had killed Wheatley.

 _My decision had killed Wheatley_.

If I hadn't jumped down that lift, Wheatley would still be alive. He wouldn't be much help, but he would be company. More importantly, my entire reasoning for coming back to Aperture wouldn't be gone. Now, Ashton's death and my time had all been for nothing. All because I didn't think things through and acted too quickly. If only I'd been able to crawl up the shaft like I tried to. If only I had been able to catch myself in the tube so we didn't go down so far. If only I could've stunted at least a little of the fall. Maybe I could've stayed awake. Maybe I could've stopped Wheatley from rolling into the water and getting fried.

Maybe he'd be rambling on, thanking me over and over. He could've finally finished his apology too, because there was no GLaDOS down here to interrupt him.

I made it to the stairs and started my way up. My portal gun had that odd light feeling again. I wished I hadn't dismantled Wheatley so I could've at least carried him. Maybe he'd have eventually been able to turn on again. He would've filled the silence so that every little squeak didn't have me jumping. The old metal stairs seemed to squeak and creak a lot.

I had to stop and take a break after a good ten or so floors were behind me. I sat on the stairs and willed my mind to stay put as I drank half of a bottle of water. The stairs looked quite similar to the other except this time I had emerged from the bottom most floor.

I was exhausted. I wasn't sure how long I'd been underground by now, but it had to have been at least a day. I wanted those spaghettios I had to leave behind up above in the alcove we'd hidden in. I wanted to sleep. I needed to rest before I absolutely collapsed somewhere. I looked up at the top of the staircase. I couldn't fathom climbing thirty more flights of stairs before I slept, but these stairs were too open. I took a glance at the door to my right and made the decision to head in.

It lead to a waiting room. There were similar benches and chairs to the ones that were in the IQ tests' waiting rooms, but I certainly wasn't sleeping on those. I was almost disappointed I didn't find more offices with the nicer chairs, but I didn't have much room to complain right now. I walked behind the receptionist's desk and ducked down under it. I pulled the chair in and took the bag off my shoulder. I didn't like being closed in like this, but this was the best place I could think of where I wouldn't be seen. GLaDOS would have over 80 floors that I was aware of to search for me, and I hoped she expected me to be better at hiding than this.

This was the best I had.

I finally laid my head down and curled myself into a ball. I convinced my eyes to close, and tried not to listen to every little noise. I couldn't sleep on high alert like this. I also couldn't let my mind wander, because it brought me to Ashton and Wheatley, or to how bad my predicament was. It took a while, but I did finally fall asleep.

* * *

 _"Hey, Che!" Ashton was at the stove, flipping burgers. He was sweating from the heat, but he had his huge grin on his face all the same. Matty and Blu- his nickname, he never told me his real name - were putting burgers on buns. I found it odd, considering we didn't made burgers. Matty was obviously aware, though, so I didn't worry about it._

 _I started making the boxed salads. I was cutting tomatoes when the door to the back opened. On his rail, Wheatley made his way to Matty, who pulled a sticky note off his faceplate and called out the order. I dropped the cheese I was holding and decided to step out a minute. Wheatley called after me, but I went ahead into the main room. There, the android from the office and the chestnut-haired android were sitting at a table, eating lunch._

 _I bolted outside and grabbed onto the lamppost just outside the shop. The metal was cold against my hands, but I didn't mind. I needed to ground myself. I started looking around, but all I saw was an empty street. I started running, my tennis shoes clacking against the pavement of the sidewalk. I stopped when that turned to the sound of something hard on metal. I looked down to see a catwalk instead of the road. I looked back towards Matty's shop._

 _Matty was watching me from the window and waved. I tried to get back, but the catwalk came to an end just before the door. There was nothing to walk on between me and the door, and I suddenly felt very trapped. I called for Matty, but she just smiled and headed towards the backroom. I backed myself slowly away from the building, trying to think of a reasonable explanation, "Miss C?"_

 _I turned myself around to see Ashton behind me on the catwalk. He was out of his uniform and into his casual clothes. He reached his hand out, offering a piece of gum, "Rough first shift?"_

 _I looked around and motioned to the catwalk. When I tried to speak, my voice didn't come. I tried hard to speak, but nothing would come out. Ashton repocketed the gum and walked closer, "Are you feeling okay?"_

 _I shook my head and put my hands on my throat. He stared at me a moment, "Che?"_

 _I pointed to Matty's shop and to the catwalk. He laughed and turned around, headed away from the shop, "I know. I wish we could go back too."_

 _I followed him, trying to figure out what he meant. The farther we went, the more scarce the buildings around us got even though last time I came, it was near the middle of town. The catwalk gave away to a dirt road, and I noticed Ashton's truck. The back right wheel had a nasty flat and caused the whole truck to be uneven. Ashton walked past his truck, however, and into the wheat field past it._

 _The shack came up faster this time, In fact, I could still see his truck as we neared it. I seized his wrist and shook my head, "Hey, Ashton? I don't think we should go in there-"_

 _"It'll be fine," He shrugged my hand off and kept walking._

 _"No, no, no. No it won't be fine. Ashton- I mean it. We need to stay_ _ **here**_ _. We can't go in there- There's nothing good in there Ashton."_

 _"I'm just grabbing a few tools."_

 _"That's not a tool shed, Ashton- Ashton stop!"_

 _He turned to look at me and grinned. I watched the wheatfield divided up into screens. Patches of it disappeared as all the monitors shut off. Upon looking down, I could see I was on the outer edge of a catwalk. I dove to stop the panel from grabbing him, but my chest just slammed into the catwalk and I fell after hitting my hip on the edge._

 _The fall was surprisingly short, but when I looked up nothing but darkness loomed above me. I got to my feet and looked around. I saw the brown-haired android again, and he smiled, "Oh, hello luv! Where'd you come from?"_

 _"Where'd I- Wheatley?"_

 _He grinned and grabbed my hand. He pulled me along as he ran, despite my attempts to stop us. He brought me to the end of a broken catwalk and turned to look at me, "Isn't it awful here? Nothing here is put together as it should be."_

 _I nodded hurriedly, "Wheatley, we need to get out of here."_

 _"Right, right, we should do that… Except one problem."_

 _"What? Wheatley- come on-"_

 _"You left me," His voice didn't sound it's chipper tone. He frowned at me and took a step towards me. I took a step back as a precaution, "You gave up. One little try and 'Oh well, I tried. Little ol' Wheatley's dead. Better get goin' to save my own hide.' Right, Chell?"_

 _"No! Wheatley - You were fried! There was nothing I could do!"_

 _"Nothing you could do? You didn't try half the things you could've! All you did was try to put me in an android! You didn't try looking for replacement parts or even drying me properly! You didn't even bloody take me with you! What if you went to the core room up above just a bit and just put me in one of them, hm?"_

 _"I couldn't! I would-"_

 _"Would have been weighed down by me. My dead body really would've been in the way, wouldn't of it? Sorry I became such a_ _ **bother**_ , _Chell."_

 _With that, I watched him back up off the edge of the catwalk. I ran to catch him, but he plummeted down in the water below. I stood stunned for a long moment before I had the nerve to move again._

 _"Thank you for participating in the Aperture Science Mental Examination. You have failed. However, we recommend you to sign up as a test subject-"_

* * *

GLaDOS' voice was interrupted by me hitting my head on the bottom of the receptionist desk. I grabbed my head as it pounded around the spot that I could only imagine was making quite the bruise. I was drenched in cold sweat and my throat felt dry. I quickly grabbed a bottle of water and chugged it. I tried not to focus on the dream as I tossed the now empty bottle aside and got up. I was a little dizzy, definitely disoriented, and sore in several places from how I slept. Not to mention I likely had a concussion now. I rubbed the place tenderly, but the pain recommended I didn't continue.

I wasn't sure how much better I felt now that I slept, but at least now I felt like I could keep my eyes open. As much as I would've liked to go back to sleep, I knew better than to after the injury the desk had dealt to my head. I made my way back to the staircase and began progressing upwards again. My steps were slow and groggy, but I was okay with that so long as they were steps in the right direction. I'd get there eventually or die of old age, whichever came first.

The grogginess didn't fade very quickly. Ten flights later, when I took a break, it still was holding strong. I chugged down a bottle of water and tossed it down the center straight to the floor below. I heard it land with a crackle and wondered if falling from this height had been enough to make it split open. I didn't bother looking down since it was so far below me. As I sat there, I noticed the cracks in the walls. The structure was starting to fall apart from old age, long forgotten by anyone who could attempt to repair it.

This was definitely a place left to rot.

I had gotten up and made it up another good six flights or so when I heard something. It sounded sort of like the sound of an air conditioner droning on way off on the other side of the house. I glanced upward, but there wasn't anything to make that noise to my knowledge. I certainly hadn't noticed any sort of heat or air conditioning, and it probably would've been too expensive for Aperture to afford - especially way down here - anyways. By time I was on the last set of ten flights, the sound was starting to get loud enough that I heard it without having to stop and listen. However, it wasn't getting louder in proportion with my progress up the steps. It seemed to be getting louder on its own, like it was getting closer.

I tried to keep all my thoughts in reality as I paused to listen. As I was standing there, I felt the railing begin to tremble. I suddenly felt a lot less safe. I considered ducking for cover on the nearest floor, but I wasn't sure where to go to be safe. I didn't know what the noise was. I willed myself to keep moving up the stairs despite the inevitable fact that I was moving myself closer to the noise. I wasn't even sure the root of the noise was dangerous, or even sentient.

I didn't know what to do when the stairs started shaking. I was stuck between two levels, and they were shaking too much to progress or go back. I grabbed onto the railing, but it felt like it was going to give away any moment now. The ceiling began to crumble and turn to a state that seemed almost like powder on it's way down. A hole began to form in it, but I didn't have much time to look. The railing gave away, and without something to try and balance myself on, I fell onto my stomach. My torso slid off the steps and over the edge, and I was quickly being pulled downwards.

I grabbed onto the edge of the stairs, but I lost my grip when my weight finally hit. As I soared down past all those flights I had travelled, I pointed my feet towards the ground. I wasn't sure how well my long fall boots were going to work on uneven ground, but it had to be better than how my spine or skull would do. When I landed, it sent a rush of pressure up through me. It seemed the long fall boots had done pretty well.

Something that looked similar to a ridiculously oversized hunk of coal landed a few feet away from me. I started taking steps back, and I found out that was a good idea. A dozen or so little mechanisms crawled out. They seemed to have three little metal legs that reminded me of turret legs, and also had some sort of core-like optic on their black, oddly shaped bodies. They looked a lot like rectangular cubes on top of another rectangular cube of sorts, with all kinds of metal welded together to make them.

I decided to run before I could find out what they were.

I could hear the small bits of metal grinding as they ran. I raced through the hall, recalling the way out from yesterday. Or at least, I was going to call it yesterday on account of the lack of calendar. I found myself at the last staircase. I was hopping down flights at a time, but I knew those things were catching up. Once I was certain my boots would be capable of handling the fall, I swung myself over the railing. I heard them each pop off the railing and follow suit. I didn't waste time when I landed, and kept running. I shot a portal back into the broken down chamber, and threw myself into it. I tried moving the portal, but a couple got through anyway,

They also sounded like they were finding their way through the holes. I was glad there was no one to reset the puzzles I'd done, or progressing out of the test chambers would've been impossible. I usually shot portals to save time, and I went from a dozen following me to, based on the glance I caught in a portal, four. I had forgotten just how many test chambers I'd done, and I was rapidly running out of energy to keep going. By time I made it to the first waiting room I encountered, I wanted to go back to sleep for a while.

However, I ignored my instinct and got through the last five chambers that stood between me and the one lift I'd been on since I got down here. However, I climbed over the railing and hopped down instead of waiting on it . The catwalk below rattled like an angry snake the entire time I was running on it. It also sounded like one of the bots got stuck in the catwalk in their pursuit of me.

I didn't know where I'd be going after I got back to where we started. I felt trapped, though I was sure there was another way to go in that first space I had landed in. I felt tired and my pace was decreasing against my will. I was going to be caught up with soon, and I had no clue what would happen after that. These things had a purpose of some sort, and I was certain they weren't here by accident. Entire ceilings don't fall out by accident.

As I turned the corner, I tripped over something. I scrambled to my feet, but was startled when something else moved behind me. I didn't have the time to look, so I just kept running. If it was bad, that's what I'd be doing anyway. I hopped over the globe on my way back towards where we - I - entered from, "Wait, luv!"

 _Not now_. I couldn't lose a grip on reality now. I swung the door open and shot a portal to go down below, "Wait for me!"

I hopped into it and landed out the other side, "Hold on a tick! Don't-"

I shot the portal away from there so those little bots and my hallucinations couldn't follow me. I heard him yell from what sounded like pain, and I couldn't help but glance back. The brown haired android was trying to bat off the little bots, but they looked almost like they were well attached to him. I lost my sense of the fact I was hallucinating and shot a portal behind him.

I ripped the bots off of him and chucked them into the hallway. I slammed the door and pushed some nearby rubble in front of it to assure myself it wasn't going to pop open. I returned through my portal and laid down on the layers of metal, rock, and in general just old pieces of facility. I was trying to catch my breath, but it was doing a better job evading me than I did those bots. My limbs wouldn't stay still as they came down from the adrenaline; they shook like the stairs back there had. I closed my eyes and let myself lay there just a moment.

I knew I had to keep moving. Those things probably had some sort of feed to GLaDOS, meaning She knew right where I'd just came from and the direction I went now. I knew I had to keep moving, but I couldn't will my body to move an inch to grab a water bottle more less what would likely be several miles. Right now, the metal beneath me felt better than my bed from home. Right now, I was more exhausted than I was the time I did three back-to-back shifts at Matty's cafe to cover for Blakely. There was nothing I could do but lay there to let my body catch up with me.

Something cold touched my forehead. I shoved at it, trying to pull my feet beneath me so that I could get up, but I didn't have the strength and I fell instead. I glanced up to see the android leaning over at almost a right angle above me with it's hands on it's knees. It seemed to be wobbling a little, but otherwise I had to admit it looked like it was in better condition than me right now. A pair of glasses were slightly askew on the tip of his nose, and they slid right off the moment I noticed them. When he reached for them, he fell forward next to them, just narrowly not crushing them, "Oh, for god's sake! How do you humans do this, anyways? This whole legs and arms and spine thing. I don't get it!"

I closed my eyes and tried to will it away. I didn't need any extra hell from my head on top of the hellhounds GLaDOS had sent in the form of two-inch tall bots. I focused on seeing Wheatley's body in the pool of water, trying to remind my subconscious that he was dead. However, something metal poked my forehead. I knew what I'd see when I opened my eyes, so I decided to keep them shut.

"Are you sleeping?"

I didn't respond to it. I couldn't. It would just lead me into another delusion, and I had to keep grounded. It was too dangerous to leave reality now. I felt my fingers along the fresh tear in my jumpsuit to the side of my right knee. I tried to focus on the way the fibers frayed at the cut, the feeling of going from the jumpsuit to my skin. However, another poke to the forehead snapped me right out of it. I looked up at him, and a grin spread on his lips, "There you are!"

I looked away from him again. If I interacted with him now, who knew how long it would take to get out of this state of mind. He started rambling a little, "When I woke up, no one was around! I stood still for ages, because I thought I was still a lil' old core! But then I noticed that I was _**above**_ the counters! I thought i was on my rail, so I tried to move on it, but instead this body bloody collapsed! It took a minute to get the hang of walking - actually if we're being truthfully honest, it took a lot longer than a minute - and I went to look for you!"

My delusions didn't usually last this long. I tried not to listen, but he kept rambling, "The last thing I remember before that was we fell. You were out like a light, and me- I was rolling. Where did I end up? No where else but face down in a puddle! Well… More like a river than puddle… Oh! You probably know that though! I saw my little core body back in that room. Did you do this?"

 _Did you do this._ _Do what, got you killed and then tried to atone for it?_ He sat down properly in front of me and poked my shoulder, "Did you go back to sleep? WIth your eyes open?"

I finally gave him a nod. He seemed a little upset, "Oh, you are asleep then? Well could you wake up?"

Not what I meant. I looked at him and pointed to him, "Wha, me? I'm not asleep!"  
I shook my head and pointed again. He stared at me for an uncomfortable amount of time before he looked down and seemed to jolt a little straighter, "Oh! My new body! So you _did_ do this?"

I gave him another nod.

He grinned at me, "Brilliant. As always. Um- Lets see- Update me! What's been going on while I've been out? How long have I been out? What's the plan on getting out?"

I wasn't sure how to answer all of those in body gestures.


End file.
